Radford University
Developing a Trigonometry Phone App
What's one more app? After reviewing how to calculate missing side lengths or angle measures in a right triangle, pupils create instructions for a phone app to do all of the tedious work. They must consider all nine cases of known...
NASA
Communications and the Lunar Outpost
Can you hear me now? Groups use given information about communication on the moon to determine the maximum distance an astronaut can travel and stay in communication. Using the calculations, they determine what lunar features they can...
Illustrative Mathematics
Eratosthenes and the Circumference of the Earth
The class gets to practice being a mathematician in ancient Greece, performing geometric application problems in the way of Eratosthenes. After following the steps of the great mathematicians, they then compare the (surprisingly...
Civil War Trust
Map the Civil War
Mapmaking was a very important element in successfully planning attacks on enemies during the Civil War. Guide pupils through the process of pacing to find the average length of their steps, measure the distance between one object to the...
Missouri Department of Elementary
Be a Problem Solving Star
Reach for the STARs! Using the resource, scholars review the STAR (Stop, Think, Act, Review) method and discuss how to use it to solve a math equation. Next, small groups collaborate to solve a common problem in the classroom using the...
101 Questions
Wedding Cake Ribbon
Customers often want ribbon around fancy cakes, but how does a baker know how much ribbon to buy? Scholars view a cake with multiple layers in different geometric shapes. They must figure the perimeter and circumference and add them...
Kentucky Educational Television
The Road to Proportional Reasoning
Just how big would it really be? Young mathematicians determine if different toys are proportional and if their scale is accurate. They solve problems relating scale along with volume and surface area using manipulatives. The last day of...
NASA
It All Comes Full Circle
How long does it take spacecraft go around the earth? Using the circular orbits of the space shuttle and the International Space Station, groups determine the distance traveled in one revolution, then calculate the distance traveled...
Key Curriculum Press
Triangle Inequalities
Properties about triangles are explored in this activity. Geometers make conjectures about the length of a triangle's sides, the length of the angles in relation to the length of the sides, and the measure of the exterior angles of a...
Exploratorium
Tired Weight
Take your class out to visit your automobile and use the tires to compute the weight of the vehicle. This is done by measuring the surface of the tire meeting the ground and the air pressure. This is a fun lesson in the relationship...
Virginia Department of Education
Constructions
Pupils learn the steps for basic constructions using a straightedge, a compass, and a pencil. Pairs develop the skills to copy a segment and an angle, bisect a segment and an angle, and construct parallel and perpendicular lines.
Polar Trec
Playground Profiling—Topographic Profile Mapping
The Kuril islands stretch from Japan to Russia, and the ongoing dispute about their jurisdiction prevents many scientific research studies. Scholars learn to create a topographic profile of a specific area around their schools. Then they...
EngageNY
Ratios of Fractions and Their Unit Rates 2
Remodeling projects require more than just a good design — they involve complex fractions, too. To determine whether a tiling project will fit within a given budget pupils calculate the square footage to determine the number of tiles...
Teach Engineering
Machines and Tools (Part 2)
Which pulley system will give us a whale of a good time? Teams compare the theoretical and actual mechanical advantages of different pulley systems. They then form a recommendation for how to move a whale from an aquarium back to the ocean.
Mt. San Antonio Collage
Inequalities in a Triangle
Stuck with triangle proofs? Take a 180° and provide learners with a guided worksheet that tests their knowledge with triangle inequalities. The questions require different types of proofs that range in levels of difficulty.
Curated OER
Access Ramp
Just about every public building that your students 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 Theorem,...
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...
Mt. San Antonio Collage
Graphing Trigonometric Functions
Double win with a comprehensive worksheet and an excellent worked out answer key. The worksheet itself is twelve pages and begins with the simple sine and cosine graphs, then, develops into the reciprocal trig functions.
Sierra College
"Deals on Wheels!" Car Loan Project
Help your class members learn how to use their income wisely with a comprehensive lesson plan on calculating monthly car payments. Using basic math skills and online calculators, your learners will determine the total amount to be...
National Security Agency
Classifying Triangles
Building on young mathematicians' prior knowledge of three-sided shapes, this lesson series explores the defining characteristics of different types of triangles. Starting with a shared reading of the children's book The Greedy Triangle,...
Shodor Education Foundation
Estimating With Fire
Watch the damage from a forest fire in this interactive simulation activity that challenges learners to estimate the burn area using different approaches. Learners are given a worksheet to track the different burn patterns and practice...
Shodor Education Foundation
Triangle Area
While the lesson plan focuses on right triangles, this activity offers a great way to practice the area of all triangles through an interactive webpage. The activity begins with the class taking a square paper and cutting in in half; can...
American Statistical Association
Bear Hugs
Scholars research arm span to determine who gives the best bear hugs. They use data from a national study to find the standard statistics for arm span. It includes mean, median, quartiles, spread, standard deviation, and more.
Exploratorium
Rotating String Shapes
Here is a very interesting way of studying triangles and polygons. Pupils work together and use pieces of string to create a variety of shapes. Depending on how many kids are manipulating the string at any one time, the number of...