Math
Give kids a taste of a sequence, let them build an understanding, and then see how far their predictions can take them.
Your students will use estimation strategies to figure out how many parking spots are there in the parking structure at Disneyland? And you bet I reveal the real answer!
In this cross-curricular investigation, students will look into an intriguing question: do donuts or salads have more sugar? They'll grapple with misleading information, bias, and use their math skills to create a visual representation of sugar in popular foods.
No video gets me more email from students! How few colors can you use to color in any map so that no two, neighboring regions are the same color?
Imagine a 3×3 square in which every row, column, and diagonal have the same sum. That's a magic square!
You've got 60 spaces on a grid to create an amusement park, a house, a farm, or whatever you'd like. Divide it into seven pieces, order it by size, combine into two halves, and more in this fraction project.
Typical practice problems don't move students up Bloom's Taxonomy. With this framework, you'll see kids stop and really think about how to approach multi-digit addition.
Once students understand the order of operations, they often just get stuck doing increasingly difficult practice problems. That's a sure-fire way to squelch learning, though. Here, students determine where to place parentheses to make the greatest change in an expression.
Multiplication and division, natural foes, are constantly seeking to undo each other. Students will attempt to reverse the effects of multiplication by dividing once, twice, or even thrice!
Place value is something we cover in elementary school. It seems simple, but I'd wager that very few adults really understand the topic. I sure didn't until I worked with non-base-10 number systems in college. Your students can get a taste of this mind-boggling experience by imagining what it would be like if we didn't have the number 9. What would each digit represent then?
You only have six digits to form three fractions. Can you combine them to get to 0?
When fractions take on a new denominator, it's as if they're wearing a disguise - same value, new look. So let's write a story about fraction equivalence starring a fraction who needs to fit in with a new group.
Let's use factors to encode and decode words.
Ready for a tricky counting and divisibility game?
Why are there 12 months? Why don't weeks fit into months evenly? Why don't weeks fit into the year evenly? What's going on with the calendar!
Imagine a world with no hundreds place. We'd have to call it ten tens instead. But then, what would we call the thousands place? How would we read 9999? What if we added one more?
What could we possibly do to make rounding more interesting for students who already get it? In this series, students consider how they might round to values other than "the nearest 10." How, for example, do we round to the nearest 9? 7? 15?
Can two rectangles have the same perimeter but… different areas!?
Which set of fractions would be the trickiest to order from least to greatest? Let's have a tournament!
Say you have a dollar. Say you can double that dollar each day: $1, $2, $4, and so on. How long will it take to reach… one million dollars? Not as long as you might think!
What if this triangle pattern just kept repeating… forever!?
Can we classify quadrilaterals like we classify living things?
You could keep zooming in on this snowflake forever!
Using this one weird trick, it seems that you can turn any number into a palindrome!
Your special friends sure have some unique gift needs!
When we're adding and subtracting, do evens make odds into evens? Do odds make evens odd? Which one has… more power!?
What does it look like to multiply fractions?
What do you do with students who already get their fraction operations? Give them a contrived project about recipes or pizza slices? Make them solve annoyingly hard practice problems? Please. Here, we get students thinking in a whole new way, pondering which has more power, the numerator or denominator.
So… just how many kids could we cram onto the playground?
How has the volume of laptops changed over time? You know you want to check out how huge those first versions were!
The commutative and associative properties are a whole lot more interesting when you apply them to a mathematical operation that you created!
Would you save money if you lived in Las Vegas and commuted every day to San Francisco?
Let's make some intentionally bad graphs to learn how to spot poorly made graphs.
In this math project, students will design and furnish suites and rooms in a hotel. Then they will use their talents to sell their hotel in a presentation.
How can you cross each bridge in this city exactly once?
Pascal's pattern-packed triangle is a potent puzzle for pupils to ponder.
How heavy is the world's heaviest pumpkin when measured in Mr. Byrds?
Prime numbers are unpredictable! How can we possibly find them all? An Ancient Greek mathematician found one way!
Before teaching students the procedure for multiplying with decimals, how much can they intuitively glean from a structured play session with calculators?
How many different ways can you make this math statement true using only the digits one through nine?
Why tell a kid the rules of a triangle when they can discover them!?
What if you had an original iPod and sold it compared to if you had bought the equivalent amount of Apple stock and sold that?
Have you ever wondered what it looks like to divide by a fraction, man?
Is gas actually that expensive? What if we filled a car up with… orange juice?
Let's find how the diameter and circumference of famous circles are related.
How many different ways can you make this math statement true using only the digits one through nine?
What if I told you that an elephant weighed a back-breaking 176,000? Could you figure out the unit I'm using? But… how many corgis would that be?
What if we took a fraction apart, then took those pieces apart, then recombined them, and then recombined those, arriving back to the original fraction?
Let's create a parody ad attacking a surprisingly calorie-rich meal.
Why does the sum of the first 5 odds also equal 5 squared?
Give kids a taste of a sequence, let them build an understanding, and then see how far their predictions can take them.
Typical practice problems don't move students up Bloom's Taxonomy. With this framework, you'll see kids stop and really think about how to approach multi-digit subtraction.
Give kids a taste of a sequence, let them build an understanding, and then see how far their predictions can take them.
So… just how much caffeine can you have before you end up in the ER?
When will mean and median give us different results?
Let's buy something expensive with a credit card and then make only the minumum payments!
The Collatz Conjecture: start with any number and get to 1 using just two rules. It seems to always work…
There can never be just one angle.
In 1932, a leading authority on rattlesnakes, Laurence Klauber, discovered a startling pattern within a triangle of primes.
So should we make another movie in this series?
How many different ways can you make this math statement true using only the digits one through nine?
Using patterns, students try to deduce where that area formula came from.
How long would it take to mow a very large lawn with a push-mower?
Using exponent patterns, can students predict what the 0th power will be?
Typical practice problems don't move students up Bloom's Taxonomy. With this framework, you'll see kids stop and really think about how to approach multi-digit subtraction.
What if I told you that I'm 341,640 old? Could you figure out what unit I'm using? Hint: it's not years!
Can your students figure out how to add fractions by looking for a pattern?
Can any perfect square be written as the sum of two primes?
Every positive integer can be written as the sum of (at most) four perfect squares!
Give kids a taste of a sequence, let them build an understanding, and then see how far their predictions can take them.
Let's group letters by their symmetry, then create symmetrical words, and then symmetrical sentences!
How many different ways can you make this math statement true using only the digits one through nine?
What if we make a huge spiral of numbers and then highlight only the primes? Well, a bunch of weird patterns show up!
What if I told you a movie was a whopping 0.017 long? Could you figure out the unit I'm using? This lesson packs in strange measurements of time as well as tiny decimals.
What if you set the stage for students to discover how to multiply fractions?
Which country has a great balance between their summer and winter Olympic medals?
Can you make each side of this triangle add up to 9 using the digits 1-6?
Which are trapezoids and which are not?
Scrambled up somewhere in 161,000 is a first name. Can you find it!?
We're looking at regular vs irregular polygons.
How have the ages of three countries' populations changed from 1950 to 2020? And what problems might that create?
So, if I told you a bathtub holds 640 of water, which unit would make the most sense?
How many 2 liter bottles could you fill up using the water in an olympic-sized pool?
A lesson about lines, line segments, and rays that avoids dull memorization. Instead, we ponder this delightful question: Which is longer, a ray or a line? Then, kids consider what these different geometric concepts would think about each other.
Give kids a taste of a sequence, let them build an understanding, and then see how far their predictions can take them.
These flowers sure are getting bigger faster! How large will they be in step 10? What about step 50?
Do big countries always have the most medals? Which smaller countries rank surprisingly high in the Olympics?
What do you call two prime numbers who are very close together?
A triangle splits and splits and splits again. How many will there be in step 20?
Can any even number be written as the sum of two primes? Goldbach thought so, but we haven't proven it… yet!
How many different ways can you make this fraction subtraction statement true using only the digits one through nine?
How many different ways can you make this math statement true using only the digits one through nine?
How many different ways can you make this fraction addition statement true using only the digits one through nine?
Students work with negative numbers to create their Polar Weather Report.
Give kids a taste of a sequence, let them build an understanding, and then see how far their predictions can take them.
Give kids a taste of a sequence, let them build an understanding, and then see how far their predictions can take them.
What do people know about the amount of caffeine in common beverages?
Give kids a taste of a sequence, let them build an understanding, and then see how far their predictions can take them.
Which shapes go together based on parallel and perpendicular lines?
So, can you write every odd (greater than 3) as the sum of three primes?
How many fully loaded tram trips will it take to transport a full parking structure to Disneyland?
Students will analyze advertisements about caffeine and create a public service announcement to communicate their findings.
How many times could you fill up a jet plane using the fuel that would fit in an olympic-sized pool?
How many pounds of pasta could you cook using the water in an olympic-sized pool?
Give kids a taste of a sequence, let them build an understanding, and then see how far their predictions can take them.
It seems like there's always a prime number between two perfect squares... but is this always the case!?
How many different ways can you make this fraction multiplication statement true using only the digits one through nine?
Give kids a taste of a sequence, let them build an understanding, and then see how far their predictions can take them.
What odd and interesting shapes can your students find in this geometric image?
How many different ways can you make this fraction multiplication statement true using only the digits one through nine?
Give kids a taste of a sequence, let them build an understanding, and then see how far their predictions can take them.
How many different ways can you make this math statement true using only the digits one through nine?
What odd and interesting shapes can your students find in this geometric image?
How many different ways can you make this fraction division math statement true using only the digits one through nine?
How many different ways can you make this fraction division statement true using only the digits one through nine?
What odd and interesting shapes can your students find in this geometric image?
What odd and interesting shapes can your students find in this geometric image?
What odd and interesting shapes can your students find in this geometric image?
