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?
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?
You only have six digits to form three fractions. Can you combine them to get to 0?
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?
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!
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!?
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!
Which set of fractions would be the trickiest to order from least to greatest? Let's have a tournament!
What if this triangle pattern just kept repeating… 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!
You could keep zooming in on this snowflake forever!
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?
When we're adding and subtracting, do evens make odds into evens? Do odds make evens odd? Which one has… more power!?
Can we classify quadrilaterals like we classify living things?
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?
What does it look like to multiply fractions?
How can you cross each bridge in this city exactly once?
Pascal's pattern-packed triangle is a potent puzzle for pupils to ponder.
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 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?
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?
Why tell a kid the rules of a triangle when they can discover them!?
Is gas actually that expensive? What if we filled a car up with… orange juice?
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?
Why does the sum of the first 5 odds also equal 5 squared?
Have you ever wondered what it looks like to divide by a fraction, man?
Give kids a taste of a sequence, let them build an understanding, and then see how far their predictions can take them.
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?
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.
Let's create a parody ad attacking a surprisingly calorie-rich meal.
So… just how much caffeine can you have before you end up in the ER?
When will mean and median give us different results?
The Collatz Conjecture: start with any number and get to 1 using just two rules. It seems to always work…
Let's find how the diameter and circumference of famous circles are related.
So should we make another movie in this series?
In 1932, a leading authority on rattlesnakes, Laurence Klauber, discovered a startling pattern within a triangle of primes.
How many different ways can you make this math statement true using only the digits one through nine?
Let's buy something expensive with a credit card and then make only the minumum payments!
There can never be just one angle.
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?
Give kids a taste of a sequence, let them build an understanding, and then see how far their predictions can take them.
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 any perfect square be written as the sum of two primes?
Using exponent patterns, can students predict what the 0th power will be?
Every positive integer can be written as the sum of (at most) four perfect squares!
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.
Can your students figure out how to add fractions by looking for a pattern?
What if we make a huge spiral of numbers and then highlight only the primes? Well, a bunch of weird patterns show up!
How many different ways can you make this math statement true using only the digits one through nine?
Which country has a great balance between their summer and winter Olympic medals?
What if you set the stage for students to discover how to multiply fractions?
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.
So, if I told you a bathtub holds 640 of water, which unit would make the most sense?
Let's group letters by their symmetry, then create symmetrical words, and then symmetrical sentences!
Can you make each side of this triangle add up to 9 using the digits 1-6?
Scrambled up somewhere in 161,000 is a first name. Can you find it!?
How have the ages of three countries' populations changed from 1950 to 2020? And what problems might that create?
Give kids a taste of a sequence, let them build an understanding, and then see how far their predictions can take them.
Which are trapezoids and which are not?
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?
How many 2 liter bottles could you fill up using the water in an olympic-sized pool?
Can any even number be written as the sum of two primes? Goldbach thought so, but we haven't proven it… yet!
A triangle splits and splits and splits again. How many will there be in step 20?
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.
We're looking at regular vs irregular polygons.
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 fraction addition 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?
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.
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.
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.
Which shapes go together based on parallel and perpendicular lines?
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?
It seems like there's always a prime number between two perfect squares... but is this always the case!?
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 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?
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 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?
How many different ways can you make this fraction division math statement true using only the digits one through nine?
What odd and interesting shapes can your students find in this geometric image?
Give kids a taste of a sequence, let them build an understanding, and then see how far their predictions can take them.