Students investigate how to make change when purchasing items.  In this making change lesson, students examine a scenario to calculate the correct change.  Students play Bingo based on information and calculations to determine...

Financial literacy is the way to teach! The class works in small groups to discover the relationship between education and income level. They use their math and problem-solving skills to complete two different activities. They work out a...

Many organizations put on barbecues in order to make money. In a real-world math problem, the money allotted to purchase steak and chicken at this barbecue is only one hundred dollars. It is up to your potential chefs to figure out how...

The class explores a real-world application in which the data represents rental prices of beach condos. They problem solve by multiplying matrices to determine the cost of each property in each season. Several scenarios are presented in...

Students explore the value of money. In this money lesson, students investigating combining amounts of money and making change. Students count sets of money and make fair trades. Resources are provided.

Let the learners take the driving wheel! The class solves systems of linear equations and applies the concepts of systems to solve a real-world situation about parking cars and buses. They then use calculators to create a visual of their...

Getting a meal, side dish, drink, and dessert can be delicious—but it can be expensive too! Practice addition and subtraction with money in a lesson that focuses on a sample menu, complete with task cards and word problems.

Your class will be very interested in the results of this activity. How long does it take a MP3 and video game player to charge?  Sam only has an hour and the MP3 player only has 40% of its battery life left. Plus, his video player...

Paper folding, flu spreading in a school, bacteria growth, and continuously compounded interest all provide excellent models to study exponential functions. This is a comprehensive resource that looks at many different aspects of...

Pupils draw the graph of a door opening and closing over time. They graph a given function on their calculators, create a table of values and interpret the results by telling if the door is opening or closing and evaluate the average...

Find the faster rate. The resource tasks the class to compare proportional relationships represented in different ways. Pupils find the slope of the proportional relationships to determine the constant rates. They then analyze the...

Turn up the heat! Young mathematicians develop models to represent different climates and collect temperature data. They analyze the data with regression and residual applications. Using that information, they make conclusions about...

Study various types of mathematical models in this math lesson. Learners calculate the slope to determine the risk in a situation described. They respond to a number of questions and analyze their statistical data. Then, they determine...

Looking for an application for step functions? This activity uses real data to examine piecewise step functions. Groups create a list of data from varying scenarios and create a model to use to make recommendations to increase...

Help pupils to determine whether using square roots is the method of choice when solving quadratic equations by presenting a lesson that begins with a dropped object example and asks for a solution. This introduction to solving by...

Investigating the large numbers of science is the task in a simple but deep activity. Given a one-sentence problem set-up and some basic assumptions, the class sets off on an open-ended investigation that really gives some...

A baseball trajectory and a parabola seem to make the best pair in real-world quadratic applications. Here is a current baseball resource with questions, discussions, and explorations regarding a quadratic function and home run...

Fourth graders practice multiplication and division with cooking recipes. In this math lesson plan, 4th graders look at a recipe and change it so that it works for twice as many people or half as many people. 

Students participate in a two-week real-life math unit. In pairs, they calculate salaries, taxes, and a budget, plan a vacation, buy insurance, make a will, and design a room. They conduct Internet research to plan the vacation, and...

Middle schoolers investigate the mathematical concept of absolute value by counting the number of steps taken in two directions. Using the number line the teacher can note how they can forward and backward without changing the absolute...

An inquiry-based algebra lesson explores real-world applications of linear functions. Scholars investigate four different situations that can be modeled by linear functions, identifying the rate of change, as well as the...

Select items to purchase from a store, add up the total cost, then estimate the total cost! Kids count out the money needed to make the purchase and pay for the items. An excelent way to connect real life math and estimation!

Learners match a given velocity graph and sketch the corresponding position graph using a graphing calculator. After collecting data from their everyday life, high schoolers use specific functions on their calculators to create graphs...

Context is the key to understanding slope. A real-world application of slope uses a weight loss scenario with a constant rate of change to introduce the concept of slope of a line, before it makes a connection to the ordered pairs...