PBS
KidVid: Fractions and Scale
Scale the challenge of learning about ratios and scales. Young mathematicians learn to incorporate fractional measurements when considering scales and scale factors. They use an interactive to investigate the concept and critically...
Illustrative Mathematics
How Many Leaves on a Tree?
This is great go-to activity for those spring or fall days when the weather beckons your geometry class outside. Learners start with a small tree, devising strategies to accurately estimate the leaf count. They must then tackle the...
Noyce Foundation
Surrounded and Covered
What effect does changing the perimeter have on the area of a figure? The five problems in the resource explore this question at various grade levels. Elementary problems focus on the perimeter of rectangles and irregular figures with...
Illustrative Mathematics
Floor Plan
A multi-step problem has learners finding the actual area based on a scale drawing and then converting units at the end. Two different solution choices are listed depending on the preference on which step to start first. Both methods can...
Teach Engineering
An Inflated Impression of Mars
Help your class understand the magnitude of the distance between Earth and Mars with an activity that asks small groups to use balloons to create scale models of the Earth, Moon, and Mars. Class members figure out the distances...
Illustrative Mathematics
Dilating a Line
High School geometers verify through experimentation certain properties about dilations. This multi-step problem challenges them to construct examples of dilations to verify specific facts, the final step provides an opportunity to more...
Illustrative Mathematics
Box of Clay
What happens to a volume when you scale the dimensions of a rectangular prism? In this problem, a box of clay is increased in each dimension, with the intent to see if learners can generalize the result. The addition of...
Illustrative Mathematics
Sand Under the Swing Set
Help the local elementary school fix their playground by calculating the amount of sand needed near the swing set. The problem practices setting up proportions and ratios with three different options for solving. You can chose the option...
Education Development Center
Anita's Way to Add Fractions with Unlike Denominators
Could you develop your own way to add fractions with unlike denominators? An in-depth task has scholars examine a fictional conversation between several people in which they discuss a method of adding fractions with unlike denominators....
Curated OER
Delivery Trucks
Written to assess young scholars' knowledge of interpreting expressions that represent a quantity in terms of its context, this machine-scored task also allows for a good discussion about units guiding the problem solving and solution.
Illustrative Mathematics
Cooking with the Whole Cup
Whoops! Travis accidentally put too much butter into the recipe. Your bakers must find out how to alter the recipe to accommodate different changes by using unit rates and ratios . The activity has multiple parts and calculations with...
Indian Institute of Technology
Could King Kong Exist?
The title says it all: Could King Kong exist? Investigate how increasing the dimensions of an object affects its surface area and volume to mathematically conclude whether a creature with the weight and height of King Kong could actually...
Illustrative Mathematics
Running Around a Track I
The accuracy required by the design and measurement of an Olympic running track will surprise track stars and couch potatoes alike. Given a short introduction, the class then scaffolds into a detailed analysis of the exact nature of the...
Illustrative Mathematics
Grass Seedlings
Plants never grow at the same rate, and that is the antithesis for this word problem involving multiplication of fractions. On the worksheet, Raul notices that Pablo's seedlings are 1 1/2 times as tall, and Celina's seedlings are 3/4 as...
NASA
Star Brightness
In this brightness of stars learning exercise, high schoolers answer 7 questions about the apparent magnitudes of stars, the sun, and the moon. They compare the brightness of stars, galaxies, astronomical objects and the sun.
Curated OER
Triangle Series
Your algebra learners emphasize the"geometric" in geometric series as they use a common ratio between algebraic terms and find that it corresponds to a repeated similarity transformation.
Curated OER
Find Parabolas through Two Points
Your learners will write quadratic functions whose graphs include specific points and explore how these graphs are related to each other.
Illustrative Mathematics
Calculator Trouble
When is not solving the expression the correct answer? When you are checking the understanding of a math concept that is not number dependent. The real question being asked here is to look at the initial number, fraction, mixed number,...
Illustrative Mathematics
Comparing Products
How can 5th graders show understanding that 30 x 225 is half of 60 x 225 without completing the computation? They can use an area model and draw it out. An array, or an open array, is an area model that allows for young learners to...
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
Nctm: Figure This: Math Challenges for Families
Students, teachers, and parents alike will enjoy this challenging math site. It contains a clever brain teaser section plus creative problems related to algebra, geometry, measurement, numbers, statistics, and probability. A Spanish...