Discovery Education
Architects in Action
Hands-on and real-world applications are great ways to teach mathematical concepts. Creative thinkers examine how ratios are used to create scale models of buildings and structures. They practice working with ratios by looking at a map...
Math by Design
Transformations – Reflections
Scholars use interactive resources to figure out how to mathematically draw a reflection of a geometric shape viewed in a mirror. To conclude the activity, class members are asked to deduce the result of multiple reflections across...
Curated OER
Areas of Geometric Shapes with the Same Perimeter
A triangle, square, hexagon, and circle all have a perimeter of one unit. Eighth graders must attempt to find the area of each and arrange them in order from least to greatest areas. A terrific task for applying four different...
Curated OER
Connect the Mathematical Dots
Teachers can choose visual activities that demonstrate the elegance associated with the coordinate plane.
California Education Partners
Yum Yum Cereal
Design an efficient cereal box. Scholars use set volume criteria to design a cereal box by applying their knowledge of surface area to determine the cost to create the box. They then determine whether their designs will fit on...
Curated OER
Exploring Geometric Figures
Tenth graders explore mathematics by participating in hands-on daily activities. Learners identify a list of different shapes and classify them by shape, size, sides and vertices. They utilize tangrams and geometric pieces to gain...
Curated OER
Creeping
Students observe, measure, and graph a model of slow down slope movement representing soil creep. This task assesses students' abilities to collect, record, and organize data, set up graph axes, plot data points, draw line graphs, apply...
Education Development Center
Rational Exponents
It's rational to root for your class to learn about exponents. Scholars study rational exponents by reading a fictional dialogue between classmates. They analyze the conversation to understand the connection between rational exponents...
Curated OER
Statistical Pictures of School and Life
Students explore how mathematical data is used to summarize and illustrate everyday life. They apply mathematical concepts and skills to analyze data. Students conduct a five question survey of 50 people or more and graph the data.
Curated OER
Peat Pots
Learners place a peat pot in water to observe and calculate the rate of capillarity in a model of a soil. This task assesses students' abilities to make simple observations, collect, record, and represent data, use a data table to...
Curated OER
Turning the Tables: A Guide to Devising Your Own Story
Students observe and demonstrate how to decipher and organize the information in a math word problem and apply mathematical concepts to different story problems. They discuss the parts of a story problem, and write their own original...
Curated OER
Fruitvale Extension
Students determine sources and extent of ground water contaminate, apply mathematics to model in real world simulation, and use technology to present results.
University of Wisconsin
What’s a Square Foot Anyway? Laying Out the Design Plan
Clever! Participants don square-foot cardboard shoes to mark out the rain garden plot that they have spent the last few weeks designing. In this way, they are practicing scale modeling as well! Note that this lesson is part of a unit,...
Balanced Assessment
Don't Fence Me In
Investigate the complexities of design problems using geometric concepts. The task asks scholars to design a fence for a horse based on the distance it can travel within one hour. It is a seemingly simple task — until individuals learn...
EngageNY
Addition and Subtraction of Rational Numbers
Apply addition and subtraction of integers to solve problems with rational numbers. Pupils apply the rules for adding and subtracting integers to add and subtract rational numbers. Class members represent the problem with equations and...
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Building Ecological Pyramids
Looking for a fresh take on traditional food/energy pyramids? Conduct an innovative activity where pupils build their own! The lesson uses research data from Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique for a real-life safari touch. Scholars...
Concord Consortium
City of New Orleans
In the United States, most trains operate at a top speed of 100 miles per hour. Scholars use information on the distance and time of a train trip to determine if the train ever reaches a specific speed. They connect pieces of information...
EngageNY
Dividing Segments Proportionately
Fractions, ratios, and proportions: what do they have to do with segments? Scholars discover the midpoint formula through coordinate geometry. Next, they expand on the formula to apply it to dividing the segment into different...
EngageNY
Unknown Angle Problems with Inscribed Angles in Circles
We know theorems about circles—now what? Class members prove a theorem, with half the class taking the case where a point is inside the circle and half the class taking the case where a point is outside the circle. The activity then...
EngageNY
The Inscribed Angle Alternate – A Tangent Angle
You know the Inscribed Angle Theorem and you know about tangent lines; now let's consider them together! Learners first explore angle measures when one of the rays of the angle is a tangent to a circle. They then apply their...
EngageNY
Using the Number Line to Model the Addition of Integers
The second instructional activity in a series of 25 shows the class how to use arrows and a number line to add integers. Learners apply their knowledge of the commutative property and absolute value in their explanations. Classmates play...
EngageNY
Solving Inequalities
Investigate complex problem situations by applying inequalities. Building from concepts explored in the previous lesson plan, learners read word problems and develop inequalities to represent the situation. They then solve the...
EngageNY
Generating Equivalent Expressions II
Discover how to apply the commutative and associative properties to generate equivalent expressions. The second lesson in the 28-part module asks pupils to rearrange an expression by grouping like terms. From there, they can combine...
EngageNY
Collecting Rational Number Like Terms
Teach pupils to handle fractions fluently. The sixth installment in the series of 28 has class members apply the concepts learned in previous lessons to expressions with fractional coefficients. The fractions are both mixed numbers and...