Illustrative Mathematics
Sports Equipment Set
Many learners like to play sports and the equipment that goes with it costs money. The resource sets up an inequality that gives a total amount needed to purchase the equipment and the initial amount of money already obtained. In order...
Illustrative Mathematics
Jayden’s Snacks
A quick activity to test the knowledge of your learners on adding and subtracting with decimals. They must calculate how much Jayden spent at the store and how much money he has remaining.
Illustrative Mathematics
Buying Gas
A quick problem to test your middle schoolers' knowledge of dividing with decimals. Also a good practice of unit rates, they must compute the cost of one gallon of gas when given the total amount for a fill up. Can be used as a preface...
Curated OER
Mixing Candies
Mixture problems are a classic in first-year algebra. Unfortunately, many learners approach them in a formulaic fashion and don't truly understand the meaning of the algebraic expressions they are using. Here, the questions are not the...
Curated OER
Delayed Gratification
Word problems are great for engaging critical thinking skills, and word problems involving money increase a child's financial literacy. Boost your critical and financial thinkers with a multi-step word problem involving money and problem...
Illustrative Mathematics
Price per Pound and Pounds per Dollar
Help learners understand the concept of unit rate as it is applied to buying beans at a grocery store. The objective is to determine the unit rate in two ways, and then apply each ratio to an additional problem. The attached commentary...
Curated OER
Selling Fuel Oil at a Loss
Learners are asked to advise a fuel oil dealer on a possible investment. They must use two different rates to set up an equation and solve to determine how much oil he should sell now to break even after selling the remainder the next...
Curated OER
Accurately Weighing Pennies II
Drawing from a scenario of the history of the penny, learners write and solve a system of linear equations from a context.
101 Questions
Woody's Raise
You want to be where everyone gets a raise. A short clip from the TV show Cheers provides the context for the task. After watching an interaction between a bartender and an owner regarding a raise, viewers write inequalities to represent...
Curated OER
Stock Swaps, Variation 3
More on the fictitious takeover of the Apple Corporation by Microsoft. In this scenario, Microsoft has $28.00 per share to spare, so how many do they need to offer to make an even trade? This is an engaging problem to solve when...
Illustrative Mathematics
Chocolate Bar Sales
In this real-world example, algebra learners start to get a sense of how to represent the relationship between two variables in different ways. They start by looking at a partial table of values that define a linear relationship. They...
Curated OER
A Valuable Quarter
Your young bankers model an account balance with an exponential function and solve the equation by extracting a root or taking a logarithm. The task involves the context of annual and compounding interest as well as some interesting...
Howard County Schools
Maria’s Quinceañera
How long will it take to save up for a car? Classmates use linear and exponential models to see how money received during a Quinceanera will grow over time.
Illustrative Mathematics
Kimi and Jordan
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...
Illustrative Mathematics
Movie tickets
This is a good Common Core question that relates inflation to operations with decimals and rounding. Young learners are asked to find out if an amount of money can purchase the same amount of movie tickets in 2012 as it did in 1987. They...
Illustrative Mathematics
Setting Goals
Setting financial goals is a common occurrence in middle school that your learners can practice using this activity. They will be able to solve for how many hours Seth needs to work to save up for a skateboard, helmet, and trip. The...
Curated OER
Accurately Weighing Pennies I
Drawing from a scenario of the history of the penny, learners write and solve a system of linear equations from a context.
Curated OER
7.RP Music Companies, Variation 1
We've got the beat! And your musically-minded mathematicians will tap their toes as they determine which music company would be getting a better deal based on their offers to buy out TunesTown. The topic is extended in an additional task...
5280 Math
Interesting Times
Gain a little interest in functions with a real-life task. Young scholars analyze home loan data with a geometric sequence and series. They use the models to make predictions about the total loan payments at certain intervals in a useful...
Curated OER
Cash Box
Solving systems of equations with a twist! If you are looking for something out of the ordinary, then this is the problem for you. In this scenario, some money is found on the ground and you need to determine if it belongs in the cash...
Curated OER
Stock Swaps, Variation 2
If Microsoft wanted to take over Apple, how many shares would they need to break even? This is an ideal task for seventh graders who are studying proportional relationships and applying them to real-world scenarios. Use it as an...
Ms. Amber Nakamura's Mathematics Website
Algebra Project
What would your dream house look like? A cottage? A medieval castle? High schoolers enrolled in Algebra design the perfect house while using slopes to write equations for various aspects of the project.
NASA
Benford's Law
In this Benford's Law learning exercise, high schoolers read about the first digit frequency of numbers. High schoolers solve 3 problems about sunspot numbers, solar wind magnetism and the depth of the latest earthquakes by using on line...
Curated OER
Percents: What's the Use?
Students explore percentages in real world situations. In this percents lesson, students determine the final sales price after discounts. Students interview community members and determine how percentages are used in the real world.