Orange Public Schools
Stagecraft
The house lights dim, the curtain parts, lights slowly come up, revealing the stage. Before the actors appear, before a word is spoken, the audience is drawn in by the lighting, by the colors, by lines of the set, by the props, and...
Curated OER
Access Ramp
Just about every public building that your high schoolers are familiar with has an access ramp which complies with ADA requirements. As it turns out, designing such a ramp is an excellent activity to incorporate slope, the Pythagorean...
Curated OER
Task: Miniature Golf
"Fore!" All right, no one really yells this out in miniature golf, but this well-defined activity will have your charges using lots of numbers in their unique design of a miniature golf hole. Included in the activity criteria is the...
Curated OER
Task: Grain Storage
Farming is full of mathematics, and it provides numerous real-world examples for young mathematicians to study. Here, we look at a cylinder-shaped storage silo that has one flat side. Given certain dimensions, students need to determine...
National Research Center for Career and Technical Education
STEM: Lou-Vee Air Car
A comprehensive instructional activity on acceleration awaits your physicists and engineers! Two YouTube videos pique their interest, then sample F=ma problems are worked and graphed. The highlight of the instructional activity is the...
National Research Center for Career and Technical Education
Finance: Depreciation (Double Declining)
Of particular interest to a group of business and finance pupils, this lesson explores depreciation of automobile values by comparing the double declining balance to the straight line method. Mostly this is done through a slide...
National Research Center for Career and Technical Education
Information Technology: Photoshop Scale
Scaling is a practical skill as well as a topic to be addressed throughout the Common Core math standards. You are given three different presentations and a detailed teacher's guide to use while teaching proportion, as well as practice...
Radford University
How Do I Design a Raised Bed Garden to Accommodate My Plants?
Give plants the best place to grow. Given constraints on plant spacing, pupils design a raised bed garden using graph paper, then calculate the perimeter, surface area, and volume. They use the provided costs of lumber and soil to...
Radford University
“Putt-Putt” For The Geometry of It!
Take a swing at the task. Using their knowledge of polygons and solids, scholars design one hole of a miniature golf course. They calculate areas and perimeters, determine the cost of building the holes, make scale drawings, and create...
Radford University
A Place at the Table
Find a seat at the table. Learners design a non-rectangular picnic table given constraints on the number of people that should be able to sit at the table. They draw blueprints and build scale models of their tables. After researching...
Radford University
Building Sandcastles
Finalize the plans before playing in the sand. Learners design sandcastles using geometric and composite figures. They create blueprints, including the scale, and three-dimensional models of their castles. Finally, scholars calculate the...
Radford University
What’s Your Party Like? An Exploration of Area
Who knew that a party is all about the area. Individuals draw out a patio on grid paper while planning to host a party. Using colored paper to represent the total area of the patio, learners cut out furnishings to add to the patio,...
Radford University
Your School’s Athletic Director Needs Your Mathematical Input!
Cover the field. Pairs investigate two different rolls of astroturf to cover a football field. The learners determine which type of roll is the most cost effective. Scholars write letters to the athletic director explaining their...
Radford University
How do I Prepare this Piece of Floor Tile to Lay on the Bottom of my Kitchen Sink Cabinet?
How can you place a rectangular tile around a pipe? Scholars first use a model of a kitchen sink cabinet to take measurements. Using a compass and their knowledge of circles, they then cut out a circle from a piece of poster board (which...
Radford University
Ancient Aqueduct Analysis Project
Let the class' knowledge of geometry flow like water in an aqueduct. Future mathematicians research ancient Roman aqueducts and consider the geometric concepts necessary in their construction. They then use GeoGebra to create models of...
Radford University
Build-a-Toy
Don't toy with using a fun lesson. Scholars design new toys and then create scale drawings. They determine the volume and surface area of the toys, and then research prices of raw materials to estimate the manufacturing costs.
Radford University
Koi Pond
There's nothing fishy about the activity. Future mathematicians design a koi pond from various three-dimensional shapes. They calculate the perimeter, area, and volume of the pond, and then create PowerPoint presentations. They also...
Radford University
Beach House
What's the best way to make a beach house affordable? Given constraints on the number of rooms and the cost of flooring, learners design dream beach houses. They draw floor plans and calculate the areas using different units.
Radford University
The Ultimate Kitchen Renovation
Cook up a nice new kitchen. Future designers apply quadrilaterals to design a new kitchen floor. They create a tessellation and determine the area of the pattern. As an added component and real-world application, they must stick to a...
Radford University
Green Acres is the Place to Be!
Nurture a love of math and farming at the same time. Pupils apply geometry concepts, such as surface area and volume of three-dimensional shapes and similarity ratios, to farming contexts. They consider the dimensions of bales of hay,...
Radford University
Being Green – Minimizing the Surface Area of a Soda Can
Save the world by designing a new soda can! Learners first measure the dimensions of a typical soda can and calculate its surface area and volume. They then use spreadsheet software to minimize the surface area for the volume, thus...
Radford University
Surface Area and Volume of 3-D Objects
Don't let the class tank the project. After reviewing formulas for surface area and volume, pupils design fish tanks that maximize volume. They research cost of materials online and must meet a budgetary constraint when creating their...
Radford University
Land Development
Groups work with polynomials to devise functions that will model a selling price for property. The teams determine variables to create expressions to represent the cost required to develop land into a housing addition. Classmates then...
Radford University
Down on Sue's Farm
When would a farmer use math? Class members work through five tasks on a farm that require knowledge of surface area, volume, and determining regression equations. The challenges range from figuring out the amount of paint to buy,...