Students use hands-on activities to explore transformations. They view a video segment that demonstrate how M. C. Escher employed geometry and transformations to create so many of his famous drawings.

High schoolers identify various geometric shapes. Apply the given formulas to determine the volume of these shapes. Design their own container to conform to specifications provided. Use their knowledge of volume formulas and shapes to...

A fantastic lesson on survival in outer space should excite your learners! Pupils explore the challenges that living, working, and surviving in space elicit. They focus on the spacesuit itself; how it protects astronauts, and enables...

Middle schoolers redesign their school to make it more energy efficient, and create a model of their design. Learners get together in groups of 5, and they take on the task of making their school more energy efficient. To do this, they...

Using spectroscopes, high school astronomy, physics, or chemistry learners observe emission spectra from several different sources. This stellar NASA-produced lesson plan provides terrific teacher's notes and a student handout. Make sure...

Upper graders represent multiplication of a two-digit number by a two-digit number as the area of a rectangle with dimensions of the two factors. They find patterns for the number of different base ten blocks in a rectangle representing...

Examine the role of the Securities Exchange Commission. Upper graders watch a short Bill Moyers video, analyze a political cartoon, complete a graphic organizer on the SEC, and develop SEC reform strategies to rebuild investor confidence.

Farming is full of mathematics, and it provides numerous real-world examples for young mathematicians to study. Here, we look at a cylinder-shaped storage silo that has one flat side. Given certain dimensions, students need to determine...

What better way to make predictions about future weather and climate patterns than with actual climate data from the past? Young climatologists analyze data from 400,000 to 10,000 years ago to determine if climate has changed over...

Here is a fabulous collection of lessons for your emerging meteorologists! In them, learners will utilize satellite data to determine distribution of rainfall, research global rainfall patterns, and utilize their knowledge to propose new...

Equip your chemistry class with the tools to properly understand endothermic and exothermic reactions. Young chemists collect, analyze, and graph data to determine how the Law of Conservation of Matter is applied to chemical...

Someone stole a diamond-making machine. Who done it? Scholars use forensic science at six different stations to determine the culprit. They analyze fingerprints, use their senses, and complete chemistry experiments to determine the...

Explore optics using an inquiry-based experimental approach! Young scholars use a set of materials to design and build a unit capable of focusing a beam of light. They experiment with different lenses to determine the best approach to...

Students build and program a car to drive a specific challenge distance.They must at the end of the lesson, have the car that stops the closest to a challenge distance.

Sew up your unit on operations with decimals using this assessment task. Young mathematicians use given rules to determine the amount of fabric they need to sew a pair of pants. They must also fill in a partially complete bill for...

Watch the damage from a forest fire in this interactive simulation activity that challenges learners to estimate the burn area using different approaches. Learners are given a worksheet to track the different burn patterns and practice...

The I-STOP law was designed to regulate the distribution and tracking of prescription drugs. After reading an article about its signing and implementation, middle and high schoolers work together to come up with their own ideas for an...

Learners examine the process of drawing a picture to scale. They analyze and discuss real-life blueprints for a house, and create a scale drawing of an original invention using calculators and rulers.

While the lesson focuses on right triangles, this activity offers a great way to practice the area of all triangles through an interactive webpage. The activity begins with the class taking a square paper and cutting in in half; can they...

Trace the links between a variety of math concepts in this far-reaching unit. Ideas that seem very different on the outset (like the distance formula and rigid transformations) come together in very natural and logical ways. This...

Slip sliding away. Groups investigates the two types of friction by running an experiment that allows them to calculate the coefficient of static friction and the coefficient of kinetic friction. The experiment uses a box, a...

Baseball is all about statistics. Pupils solve problems related to mean, median, and range. They calculate the total weight of players given the mean weight, calculate the mean weight of reserve players given the mean weight of the...

Keep your pets slim, trim, and healthy using mathematics! Pupils use a linear programming model to optimize the amount and type of food to provide to a pet rabbit. They model constraints by graphing inequalities and use them to analyze a...

Learners rearrange equations and formulas to solve for a specified variable. Includes multi-step equations with a variety of different variables and a few real-world applications. Great for use as a study guide when presenting the...