Odyssey of the Mind
Odyssey of the Mind Curriculum Activity: Made Up Math
Is there a way to connect creative thinking, logical reasoning, mathematical understanding, and humor? You bet there is! Kids begin by creating creative math quizzes, which require creative thinking to solve. For example, 1+1=24, one...
Florida Center for Instructional Technology
A Human Number Line: Teacher Notes
Twenty-one pieces of tagboard can lead your class to a greater understanding of integers when you use them to form a human number line. After creating this math tool, two strategies for adding and subtracting will have your...
KenKen Puzzle
KenKen® Puzzle
Think inside the box with KenKen® puzzles to provide some problem solving practice. These puzzles are similar to Sudoku, but require computation inside designated boxes. There are multiple puzzles with a range of difficulties to...
Curated OER
House and Holmes: A Guide to Deductive and Inductive Reasoning
Test your pupils' reasoning skills with several activities and a quick mystery to solve. Learners watch and analyze a few video clips that demonstrate reasoning in action, practice deduction with an interactive and collaborative...
Resources for Educators
Fractions of Fun
Reinforce concepts and encourage learner engagement with a collection of math games, science experiments, and cross curricular activities. In one fun resource, learners sort objects, keep a diary of everyday fractions, play a game using...
Education Development Center
Geography of the Number Line
It's more than just numbers on a line, its an organizational, mental math machine to help learners understand the value of numbers. The tool is handy when introducing positive and negative integers to see their values and...
Illustrative Mathematics
Points equidistant from two points in the plane
Young geometers apply their deductive reasoning skills and knowledge of proving triangles congruent in a task that asks them to prove if a point lies on the perpendicular bisector of a segment, then it is equidistant from the endpoints...
Curated OER
Music and Sports
With so much talent in the classroom, do your musicians and athletes have related interests? This problem has your learners taking data from their classmates to decide whether there is an association between the two activities. The...
Noyce Foundation
Perfect Pair
What makes number pairs perfect? The resource provides five problems regarding perfect pairs of numbers, the definition of which changes in complexity with each task. Solutions require pupils to apply number sense and operations, as well...
Noyce Foundation
Diminishing Return
Challenge individuals to compete as many tasks as possible. Lower-level tasks have pupils apply costs and rates to solve problems. Upper-level tasks add algebraic reasoning and conditional probability to the tasks.
Illustrative Mathematics
Seven to the What?!?
Sometimes what seems like the easiest problem is really the most difficult. Your class is first going to reach for their calculators, but will realize the number is too large to evaluate. Now what? This is where the fun and the...
Consortium for Ocean Leadership
Measure for Measure
How does your class measure up? Young scientists create a scale drawing of the JOIDES Resolution in a collaborative activity. The lesson incorporates mathematical principles with deep-sea exploration to focus on enhancing measurement...
Noyce Foundation
Double Down
Double the dog ears, double the fun. Five problems provide increasing challenges with non-linear growth. Topics include dog ears, family trees and population data, and geometric patterns.
Noyce Foundation
First Rate
Explore distance and time factors to build an understanding of rates. A comprehensive set of problems target learners of all grade levels. The initial problem provides distance and time values and asks for the winner of a race. Another...
Denton Independent School District
Pieces to the Puzzle Fraction Project
Four polygons each have a fraction with unlike denominators printed on them. Creative math minds select several shapes to create a design with and then write and solve a math problem involving the addition of all of the fractions...
Noyce Foundation
Cut It Out
Explore the mathematics of the paper snowflake! During the five lessons progressing in complexity from K through 12, pupils use spatial geometry to make predictions. Scholars consider a folded piece of paper with shapes cut out....
Noyce Foundation
What's Your Angle?
Math can be a work of art! Reach your artistic pupils as they explore angle measures. A creative set of five problems of varying levels has young learners study interior and exterior angle measures of polygons. The introductory levels...
Noyce Foundation
Digging Dinosaurs
Build a function to solve problems rooted in archeology. A comprehensive set of five lessons presents problems requiring individuals to use functions. The initial lesson asks learners to find the possible number of dinosaurs from a...
Noyce Foundation
Measuring Mammals
Explore the meaning of scale and proportion with a set of five activities that examines the topic from elementary through high school. The first lessons explore ratio by examining pictures of different sizes. The next three activities...
Illustrative Mathematics
Use Cavalieri’s Principle to Compare Aquarium Volumes
Learners are designing a stunning new water feature for an aquarium, but they soon discover that more than just a pretty home for their fishy friends is required. From calculating the volume of a composite shape through the...
Noyce Foundation
Cutting a Cube
Teach the ins and outs of the cube! A series of five K–12 level activities explore the make-up of the cube. The beginning lessons focus on the vocabulary related to the cube. Later lessons explore the possible nets that describe a cube....
Noyce Foundation
Once Upon a Time
Examine the relationship between time and geometry. A series of five lessons provides a grade-appropriate problem from elementary through high school. Each problem asks learners to compare the movement of the hands on a clock to an angle...
Noyce Foundation
On Balance
Investigate the world of unknown quantities with a creative set of five lessons that provides problem situations for varying grade levels. Each problem presents a scenario of fruit with different weights and a balance scale. Using the...
Noyce Foundation
The Wheel Shop
Teach solving for unknowns through a problem-solving approach. The grouping of five lessons progresses from finding an unknown through simple reasoning to solving simultaneous equations involving three and four variables. Each lesson...