This collaborative activity investigates the meaning of a trapezoid and a parallelogram. It begins by presenting two different definitions of a trapezoid. Learners are to reason abstractly the difference between the two definitions and...

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...

What does math have to do with a sore throat? When you mix water and salt you have a great review of how to represent proportional relationships by an equation or graph. Here the proportions of the mixtures may be different, but the...

A seemingly simple question that reveals a lot about a student's understanding of fractions. In finding an answer, learners compare fractions with different denominators that are both greater and less than one. No number line is...

The object is to model fraction division by asking “How many are in one group?” It is a difficult concept to understand, but developing the model that shows one cup to a certain amount of container or one container to a certain amount of...

Mathematical reasoning and linear systems are two of the strategies used to solve this number puzzle. Your learners will enjoy the challenge and the variety of ways to approach this challenge.

Your mathematician's job is to explore the relationship between hours and miles walked during a walk-a-thon. The activity compels your learners to experiment with different means in finding out this proportional relationship. The answer...

Two-axis rotations ... twice the fun as one-axis rotations! The last installment of a five-part module teaches scholars how to conduct two-axis rotations. They create isometric drawings before and after the rotations.

The learner puts reasoning and estimation to work. The directions are to place a decimal in the answer to make the equation true. Pupils are to look at the two problems, one multiplication and one division, and estimate an answer. No...

Help your class make sense of quantities and their relationships. Given is the product of two numbers. It is up to your number crunchers to think about the quantitative relationship when the product is one-tenth or ten times the product...

Here is another opportunity for math students to apply reasoning to solve real-world problems with ratios. The ratio of the number of votes for two candidates is provided. Your class is asked to use this ratio and information given about...

This is an opportunity for young mathematicians to apply reasoning to solve real-world problems with ratios. Even though there are three candidates for class president, students will only consider two at a time, making the first problem...

What was Bryce's mistake? Through analysis of a student work example, learners develop their own ability to compare the fractions one fourth and one half. Central to this activity is the concept that, when comparing fractions, the whole...

Need an activity for teaching the Pythagorean Theorem? Geometry juniors apply the Pythagorean theorem to two triangles to determine a final calculation. 

Often inequalities exist in many real-world contexts but young math learners struggle with understanding how to represent that relationship in a simple equation using an inequality. This activity focuses on the basic concepts by using...

A single activity gets your math class to solve a word problem using two linear equations and two variables. They compare the summer earnings of Kimi and Jordan and then graph the solutions to determine who will save the most money in a...

An exercise in finding the area of polygons by decomposing into triangles and composing into rectangles is the focus of this resource. Make several copies of the worksheet for each participant. Ask learners to use colored pencils to...

Play with paint and decide the ratio to make different shades of green. When mixing paint colors, your painters should decide which ratios make the same shade and what is needed to mix other ratios for a different shade of green. This is...

In critiquing someone else's theory, learners share insight into their own understanding of mathematical concepts. Fifth graders will explore the notion that products are always larger than their factors. While this statement is...

Your algebra learners analyze the value of an algebraic expression to decide if it will increase, decrease, or stay the same when one variable is changed as the others stay constant. Their collaborative efforts culminate with a written...

Explore the relationship between the population of foxes and rabbits in a national park using trigonometric models. Plot data and find the appropriate trigonometric functions. Two questions require interpretation and explanation of...

After planting a bean seed in a jar, young scientists observe the growth patterns over several days. As the bean becomes a sprout, and the sprout becomes a plant, partners measure and plot the data. They notice patterns, practice...

This comprehensive resource applies simultaneous equations to a real-life problem. Though the commentary starts with a graph, some home consumers may choose to begin with a table. A graph does aid learners to visualize the shift of one...

Check out the handout from a presentation that contains a collection of high school algebra projects connecting a variety of mathematics to the real world. Activities range from simple probabilities to calculus. The activities...