Class members are challenged to design a device that will move a circus elephant into a train car. Groups brainstorm ideas that use simple machines to load the elephant. They then choose one of their ideas, sketch a plan, and present it...

Your young bankers compare earning interest accumulated yearly and monthly to decide which method most increases their balance. Using an exponential function to model the bank balance affords the learners more practice connecting...

Double dip ice cream cones are a fourth grade favorite, and now they come in vocabulary and context flavor. Learners practice using double meaning words as they construct ice cream cones that contain two sentences showing how context can...

How in the world can something as big as the solar system possibly fit in your pocket? Complete this simple modeling activity and find out, as young scientists gain an appreciation for the incredible scale of outer space.

A deceptively simple question setup leads to a number of attack methods and a surprisingly sophisticated solution set in this open-ended problem. Young geometers of different strengths can go about defining the solutions graphically,...

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...

After getting to know the inventor, Leonardo da Vinci and his many inventions, scholars think up their own invention. Following a written description and a hand-drawn picture, learners use a method of mirror writing and antiquing to give...

This creative project may make your young programmers hungry as they practice their Java Script coding. The task is fairly open ended: add shapes using different shape functions, including the fill and stroke functions to add color and...

Interestingly enough, movement is not a characteristic of living things. The first activity in a series of 20 introduces learners to the concepts of living versus non-living things and then focuses on biologists and what they study....

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...

What's the best way to learn how watersheds work? Build one! Combining engineering, the water cycle, and ecology concerns, the activity is the perfect fit for an interdisciplinary unit. Teams construct a model watershed with simple...

Images of the Atapuerca Caves, the cave paintings at Altamira, and a Neanderthal skull found at Forbes' Quarry on Gibraltar serve to introduce kids to prehistoric sites in Spain. Designed to support a study of prehistoric Spain, the...

Beginning with a brief history of our 26th president, Theodore Roosevelt, then followed by a discussion of his interest in nature, young scientists take to the outdoors to locate and observe local plants and insects....

With minimal setup and maximum freedom, young geometers are encouraged to think outside the box on a seemingly simple application problem. Though the task seems simple, measuring a given paper clip and finding how many 10 meters can...

Eight different numbers are listed for mathematics masters to analyze. They simply tell if each number is rational or irrational. They can also explain their reasoning. A simple and straightforward worksheet that is a handy tool for...

Learning to read is not a simple task, but there are methods for assisting pupils as they develop literacy skills. The first four pages of this resource include information about language development and reading development, as well as...

Discover an interesting mathematical object that your algebra learners will enjoy investigating. Their adventure will lead them to the generation of a finite geometric series.

Use the given tasks and detailed teacher's commentary to introduce your 8th graders to the Pythagorean theorem and its converse. Embedded links to information about Egyptian geometry make your presentation interesting. Consider...

When is the last time you assigned your students only one problem? This seemly simple problem requires learners think like a mathematician and reason about how to solve this compound inequality in one variable. More than just using...

Mini microbiologists play a card game in which they group microorganisms by groups: virus, fungus, protist, or bacteria. Then they identify the roles different microbes play in the natural world and explore how humans effectively use...

Challenge young mathematicians' understanding of squares with this geometry puzzle. The task is simple, identify as many squares as possible in a 3x3 array. Allow learners to work independently or in pairs as they search for squares,...

Challenge young mathematicians' ability to compose and decompose shapes with this fun geometry puzzle. The goal is simple, locate all of the rectangles shown in a picture of three overlapping rectangles. Perform this activity as a whole...

Who's on second? Young mathematicians use a diagram of a baseball field to find the distance a catcher must throw to reach second base. A brief video of such a play during a baseball game sets the stage for the assignment.

You would think that humans make up more mass than ants do on this planet, but think again, and this time by performing calculations. Middle schoolers use scientific notation to compute and compare the estimated total mass of all humans...