6-8
This lesson explores magic squares from both a historical and
mathematical perspective. The mathematical analysis leads into symbolic
algebraic representation of the patterns. This lesson is based upon an
article from the April 2001 edition of
Mathematics
Teaching in the Middle School. 6-8
Students organize and prepare a luncheon for the entire class. Working
in committees, each group of students is responsible for a different
aspect of the event.
6-8
In this activity, students analyze pictures of football stands to make estimates related to the attendance at the Super Bowl. The students will realize that estimates must, at times, be made with little background information and that a range of answers might be correct. Students also make estimates about the television audience.
6-8
The activities at this level use an airport theme to investigate numbers. Students are encouraged to relate the numbers to familiar situations, for example, to use the dimensions of the classroom to describe an airplane.
6-8
This lesson is a collection of three activities, all of which revolve around patterns and place value in the binary system. Grades 5‑8 students are drawn into the mathematics by the "magical" ability to guess an unknown number and by the use of birthdays, something they find very relevant. This lesson plan is adapted from the September 1997 edition of
Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School.
6-8
In this lesson, students use a 10 × 10 grid as a model for solving
various types of percent problems. This model offers a means of
representing the given information as well as suggesting different
approaches for finding a solution. This lesson is adapted from "A
Conceptual Model for Solving Percent Problems," which originally
appeared in
Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School, Vol. 1, No. 1 (April 1994), pp. 20-25.
6-8
The Factor Game engages students in a friendly contest in which
winning strategies involve distinguishing between numbers with many
factors and numbers with few factors. Students are then guided through
an analysis of game strategies and introduced to the definitions of
prime and
composite numbers.
6-8
Students play a game in which they try to list 5 countries or states in order from most crowded to least crowded. Using area and population data from a Web site, they estimate quotients to make their list. They determine whose list is closest to the actual order by applying a mathematical model (scoring system), which they later evaluate.
6-8
The following grades 6-8 activities allow students to explore
statistics surrounding baseball. They are exposed to connections
between various mathematical concepts and see where this mathematics is
used in areas with which they are familiar. This lesson plan is adapted
from the May 1996 edition of
Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School. 6-8
This lesson presents two classic problems (
Mangoes Problem and
Sailors and Coconuts)
that can be represented and solved in several different ways.
Middle-grades students work in groups on the problems to promote
communication of mathematical ideas, and a variety of classroom
solution attempts are described. This lesson plan was adapted from an
article, written by Jerry Stonewater, which appeared in the
November‑December 1994 issue of
Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School.
