What on Earth is Greater Than?

NASA presents a mini-unit on distances in our solar system. It incorporates scientific concepts of gravity, mass, density, and payload while your aspiring astronauts also employ mathematics skills. They calculate speed, they determine...

Which is the larger amount? Two-fourths of 10 dollars, or one-fourth of 100 dollars? This type of question is the main focus of a instructional activity that has learners comparing fractions by their relative size. Each problem contains...

There are a few ways to practice fraction skills here, and they will all appeal to visual learners. First, mathematicians fill in blanks in two fraction number sequences. Next, they analyze two fractions marked along a  number line to...

An average home produces twice as many emissions as an average car. Teach your class how to reduce energy consumption by replacing standard incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs. Perform an experiment to compare...

Just how big is Earth's moon? With a hands-on simulation, scholars use Play-Doh to model the sizes of the planets Earth, Mars, Jupiter, and their moons. They make predictions as a class, work together to make their models, and discuss...

Have your class demonstrate their ability to compare fractions with this short multiple-choice assessment. Using the fractions 9/8 and 9/4, the students first make comparisons using both words and the greater than/less than signs. Next,...

Which fraction is greater than? Less than? There are 10 problems here that give scholars a visual approach to comparing fractions. They start by writing the fractions represented in a shaded shape. Then, they begin comparing visual...

Young mathematicians compare two fractions with like denominators and then move to the next level to compare fractions with unlike denominators. They will first try to use mental math to make educated guesses. There are a few guidelines...

Students make several models of the solar system to learn the positions of the planets in the solar system as well as relative distances and sizes. Creation of these models will help them identify the planets by size, shape, color,...

Learners measure the actual size and distance of the solar system using scale and ratio. They watch and discuss a video, create a distance-scale solar system model, and compare the scale sizes of planets to their actual sizes.