6-8
Students explore the Fibonacci sequence, examine how the ratio of two consecutive Fibonacci numbers creates the Golden Ratio, and identify real-life examples of the Golden Ratio.
6-8
A real-life example—taken from a bagel shop, of all places—is used to get students to think about solving a problem symbolically. Students must decipher a series of equations and interpret results to understand the point that the bagel shop’s owner is trying to make.
6-8, 9-12
Students will be introduced to modular arithmetic by first examining a five-hour analog clock and its mathematical properties. Then students will investigate patterns and relationships that exist in 12-hour addition and multiplication clock tables.
6-8, 9-12
When one end of a wooden board is placed on a bathroom scale and the
other end is suspended on a textbook, students can "walk the plank" and
record the weight measurement as their distance from the scale changes.
The results are unexpected— the relationship between the weight and
distance is linear, and all lines have the same
x‑intercept. This investigation leads to a real world occurrence of negative slope, examples of which are often hard to find.
Pre-K-2, 3-5
Students often view linear measurement as a procedure in which a number is simply read off a ruler. The goal of this lesson is to have students gain experience in linear measurement by using a variety of measuring instruments to measure the heights of classmates, to discover the error inherent in measurement, and to search for patterns in data that are represented on a table. In this lesson, students compare results of measuring the same height using different methods, and discuss measurement error. They measure the heights of classmates and the heights of older students in their school, and construct a table of height and age data. The lesson is also designed to serve as a springboard for a second lesson in which students relate measurement to algebra and data analysis concepts.
Pre-K-2, 3-5
A key goal for instruction on algebra at the elementary level is to analyze change, and to understand how change in one variable can relate to change in a second variable. The goal of this lesson is for students to explore how changes in students’ ages relate to changes in their heights.
6-8
In this lesson, students take on the role of a villager in a
third-world country trying to feed her village. While listening to you
read aloud the book
One Grain of Rice by Demi, students work
collaboratively to come up with a bargaining plan to trick the raja
into feeding the village using algebra, exponential growth, and
estimation.
6-8
In 1999 the world population passed the 6 billion mark. In this lesson, students predict when it will reach 7 billion. Students discuss the reliability of their predictions, compare them to past trends, and discuss social factors that can affect population growth.
6-8, 9-12
This lesson offers students a method for finding the slope of a line from its graph. The skills from this lesson can be applied as a tool to real-world examples of rate of change and slope.
3-5
In this lesson, students generate products using a number line model. Students are encouraged to predict the products and to answer puzzles involving multiplication.
