PBS
The Lowdown — Examining California's Prison System: Real-World Ratio
Free yourself from the shackles of traditional math lessons. Young mathematicians investigate race, gender, and age differences in California's prison system. They use provided graphics to compare the prison population with the state's...
PBS
Real-World Proportional Relationships: Gender Wage Gap
When will the gender wage gap disappear? Scholars use a provided infographic to see trends in wage gap over time. They use ratios of women's wages to men's wages to determine which decades had the greatest change in the wage gap. The...
Concord Consortium
Hockey Pucks
Package design is a mathematical task for any business. Young scholars use a package design to determine the number of packages required for specific shipments. Using ratios, proportions, and fractions, they make decisions about the best...
Concord Consortium
Heights and Weights
Height is dependent on weight—or is it the other way around? Given data from a physicians handbook, individuals compare the height and weight of males and females at different areas. They calculate differences and ratios to assist with...
Mascil Project
Building a Safe Staircase
Climb up the staircase of engineering knowledge. After watching a video of a carpenter measuring out steps for a set of stairs, pupils learn about the terminology and regulations involving stairs. They see how to use a rule of thumb when...
CCSS Math Activities
Cereal
Your breakfast cereal is a good source of math practice. Young mathematicians apply ratios and percents to analyze the amount of protein and carbohydrates in two brands of cereal. They complete a worksheet to answer several questions on...
101 Questions
Banana Bread Baker
You don't want to be short bananas when making bread. Scholars use their math skills to make sure there are enough bananas to go around. Using measurements given in a recipe, they must determine how many bananas they need to increase the...
101 Questions
Nana's Lemonade
Consistency is the key. One lemon wedge per glass of water makes a nice glass of lemonade. Young scholars must identify the number of lemon wedges they need to make the same lemonade in a big gulp cup. They develop their own solution...
101 Questions
Pedestrian Countdown
You won't find yourself racing the clock on such a great task. Scholars use video information to predict the time left on a crosswalk signal after a pedestrian crosses. The video shows the time left on the counter, and individuals must...
101 Questions
Shower v. Bath
Which requires more water--a bath or a shower? Given some specific criteria, learners attempt to answer the question. A video shows how long it takes to fill a gallon container using a faucet and a shower head. Using that information and...
101 Questions
Square Partitions
Challenge your classes while developing their problem-solving skills. A square is divided neatly into four equal triangles by its diagonals until one diagonal is moved from a vertex to the midpoint of one side. Now, scholars must devise...
101 Questions
Bean Counting
Don't spill the beans ... before the end of the lesson! Learners must predict how long it takes two people working together to fill a glass with beans. A video presents the rate it takes each person independently, and another video...
101 Questions
Thanksgiving Taters
What would a meal be without the taters? The question is, how long does it take to peel those potatoes? Given the rate of peeling one potato, scholars predict the time it takes to peel the bag. The twist is that the first potato was...
101 Questions
Print Job
A watched printer never finishes—or does it? Engage your classes in a ratio and proportion task that asks them to predict how long it takes to print the numbers one through 88 on 88 sheets of paper. They use video to determine the rate...
101 Questions
Gas Light
You don't want to leave any learners stranded! Explore ratios using an analysis of gas mileage and distance. Given a scenario, individuals must determine if a car has enough gas to make it to the next gas stop.
101 Questions
Shipping Routes
The product of the hard work is learning. Scholars use a simulation tool to collect information to analyze. They must decide when two ships traveling back and forth across a river at different rates will meet on the same side. The intent...
101 Questions
Sugar Packets
Depending on your eating habits, you just may not want to know the answer to the inquiry-based question! The task is to determine the number of sugar packets in one 20-ounce soda. Learners use nutritional information from the sugar and...
101 Questions
Stealing Bases
And he's ... safe? ... out? It's up to your scholars to decide! Provided with the speed of the runner and ball, learners develop a plan to determine which reaches the base first, the ball or the runner. While the distance from home to...
101 Questions
Leaky Faucet
A dripping faucet may be enough to drive you crazy, but it also teaches you a little about ratios. Presented with the volume of a sink and the rate the water is dripping, scholars must devise a plant to determine how long it will take...
101 Questions
Combining Coupons
Everyone likes to save money! Use your math skills to figure out just how much you can save on a pair of sweet shoes. A vendor is running a percent off sale, with a percent off coupon, and a specific dollar amount coupon—and lets you use...
101 Questions
Ants Marching
Your classroom will be rockin' during an toe-tapping lesson! Dave Matthews inspires a lesson on proportions as youth listen to a song and predict its length. Lesson materials provide learners with ordered pairs that mark the time slider...
101 Questions
Brita
It's hard to envision what 39 billion plastic bottles look like. Brita claims that the US uses that number of plastic bottles each year! If that's not enough to get your attention, figure out how many times 39 billion water bottles can...
101 Questions
Want Some Orange Juice?
Juice up your lessons with an open-ended resource. Scholars must determine how many oranges it takes to fill a container with juice. They use information presented in a video and as images to find the solution.
101 Questions
Nana's Paint Mixup
You would probably do anything for your Nana, including fixing her mistakes! Nana provided the wrong ratio to mix red and white paint, and she didn't realize it until after she mixed the paint. Your class now needs to figure out how to...