Illustrative Mathematics
Computations with Complex Numbers
This quick set of problems provides a brief refresher on the arithmetic of complex numbers. Learners need to multiply, add and subtract, and remember features of i when raised to a power. Included solutions are clear enough that...
Curated OER
Rising Gas Prices – Compounding and Inflation
Financial literacy skills and exponential models are connected by the compound interest formula in this task centered on inflation calculations. Collaborative learners get experience collecting data from the given websites and exploring...
Illustrative Mathematics
Fruit Salad
Playing with values in this fruit salad problem allows learners to find out how many cherries were mixed in. Your middle schoolers can organize their thoughts in a chart before going into the equation. Eigth graders can skip the chart...
Illustrative Mathematics
Tax and Tip
Finding out how to calculate tax and tip is a valuable skill that all young adults should be able to do without a calculator. Learners are given a bill and asked to calculate the tax, tip, and total amount. Calculations can be exact or...
Khan Academy
Challenge: Parting Clouds
Let the sun shine as your young coders move the clouds across the sky while practicing animation coding skills in JavaScript. Younger learners may benefit from more guided help or a whole-class discussion before trying this coding...
Khan Academy
Challenge: My Favorite Foods
Create a list of your favorite foods while you practice writing text in JavaScript. Use fill, textSize, and text functions. This is a quick activity that helps solidify basic skills. Expand with additional challenges...
Teach Engineering
Let's Get it There Fast
Are planes the best shipping method? Using maps, pupils determine the fastest mode of transportation between two cities. Given a list of items to ship, groups decide the best shipping method to finish the 18th segment of a 22-part unit.
Illustrative Mathematics
Listing Fractions in Increasing Size
Increase the depth of your class's fractional number sense with this number-ordering activity. Given four fractions, each with different numerators and denominators, young learners are asked to place them in order from smallest to...
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...
Curated OER
Shipping Rolled Oats
What better way to start your day than with a box of oatmeal? Or what better way to start your geometry class than by calculating its volume? Eighth graders discover just how practical volume computation can be in business and in breakfast!
Illustrative Mathematics
Building toward fluency
Here is a great learning task that focuses on the development of areas in computational fluency including strategies in mental math. Young learners are guided through a list of addition expressions that help them visually understand the...
Illustrative Mathematics
Exponentials and Logarithms I
This task focuses on using the verbal definition of the logarithm to understand that a logarithm is an exponent. Learners complete six computational exercises using the inverse properties of logs and exponents and answer two...
Curated OER
Taxes and Sales
Collaborative discussions around this retail store problem will be taxing. Calculating discount and tax and the order of the operations are used to motivate an opportunity for learners to make a convincing argument using algebraic...
Agile Mind
Isabella’s Credit Card
An in-depth activity that involves a real-world problem about credit card debt. Learners are given a scenario in which Isabella plans to stop using her credit card and pay off the balance by paying a fixed amount each month. The first...
Curated OER
Stock Swaps, Variation 2
If Microsoft wanted to take over Apple, how many shares would they need to break even? This is an ideal task for seventh graders who are studying proportional relationships and applying them to real-world scenarios. Use it as an...
Curated OER
The Random Walk
Deep mathematical thinking is found with just a coin and a number line. Combining computing some probabilities in a discrete situation, and the interpretation of a function, this simple task gives learners a lot to think about on...
Curated OER
Fred's Fun Factory
Round and round and round she goes. Where she stops, nobody knows. This activity uses a common arcade game of chance, the spinning wheel, as a platform for computing expected values, interpreting results, and applying this knowledge to...
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...
Curated OER
Basketball Bounces, Assessment Variation 1
This highly scaffolded, summative assessment tasks learners to choose the model that represents the height of a bouncing basketball given the data in graph and table form. Learners then use the model to answer questions about the...
Illustrative Mathematics
Extensions, Bisections and Dissections in a Rectangle
Gaining practice in translating a verbal description into a diagram and then an equation is the real point of this similar triangles exercise. Once the diagram is drawn, multiple methods are provided to reach the conclusion. An effective...
Khan Academy
Challenge: Double Rainbow
Draw a rainbow over the rainbow. The second segment in a series of six has the class practice using functions to edit a program that draws a rainbow. After creating the function, the interactive lesson challenges pupils to create another...
Illustrative Mathematics
Flu on Campus
An outbreak of the swine flu on a school campus has caused an increase in the number of boxes of tissues sold by the school store. In a real-world-modeling activity, pupils use composition of functions to determine how the number of...
Curated OER
Sounds Really Good! (sort of...)
Your friend Phil wants to know if he should play the lottery. Have your class use the given data to compute the expected value and explain to Phil what he should do and why. This handout is ideal for a quick assessment of skill and...
Illustrative Mathematics
Rectangle Perimeter 1
Creating an expression to represent the perimeter of a rectangle is a fundamental beginning skill in learning how to use and define variables. This activity starts with the basics and can be followed up with additional tasks.