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
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...
Illustrative Mathematics
Dan’s Division Strategy
Can Dan make a conjecture about dividing fractions with the same denominators? That is what your scholars are to determine. They must show that if the statement is true, they understand how the quantities were determined, and how...
The New York Times
Understanding the Mathematics of the Fiscal Cliff
What exactly is the fiscal cliff? What are the effects of changing income tax rates and payroll tax rates? Your learners will begin by reading news articles and examining graphs illustrating the "Bush tax cuts" of 2001 and 2003. They...
Illustrative Mathematics
Reasoning about Multiplication and Division and Place Value, Part 1
Help your class make sense of quantities and their relationships. Given is the product of two numbers. It is up to your number crunchers to think about the quantitative relationship when the product is one-tenth or ten times the product...
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...
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
Comparing Products
How can 5th graders show understanding that 30 x 225 is half of 60 x 225 without completing the computation? They can use an area model and draw it out. An array, or an open array, is an area model that allows for young learners to...
Illustrative Mathematics
How Many Cells Are in the Human Body?
Investigating the large numbers of science is the task in a simple but deep activity. Given a one-sentence problem set-up and some basic assumptions, the class sets off on an open-ended investigation that really gives some...
Illustrative Mathematics
Reasoning about Multiplication and Division and Place Value, Part 2
The learner puts reasoning and estimation to work. The directions are to place a decimal in the answer to make the equation true. Pupils are to look at the two problems, one multiplication and one division, and estimate an answer. No...
Beauty and Joy of Computing
Algorithms
Introduces the class to the idea of searching a list by building a script. Learners modify a guessing game script that will find a number in a list.
Teach Engineering
Curb the Epidemic!
Class members use an applet on the Internet to simulate the spread of a disease. The simulation allows individuals to determine two nodes to vaccinate to limit the number of nodes infected. By running several simulations, scholars...
PBL Pathways
Doctors and Nurses
How many nurses does it take to support one doctor? A project-based activity asks learners to analyze state data to answer this question. Classes create polynomial functions from the data of doctors and nurses over a seven-year...
Curated OER
Fuel Efficiency
Looking for a real-world situation to practice converting units? For this problem, learners must change miles per gallon to liters per km (or vice versa) to determine which car gets better gas miileage. It is a relatively short problem,...
Illustrative Mathematics
Bowling for Numbers
When do teams want a strike? When they are playing this fun math game modeled after bowling. First, class teams roll four dice to generate the numbers they will use in that round, called a frame, of the game. Next, pins numbered 1...
Curated OER
Bob's Bagel Shop
How much money can Bob expect to make per customer by selling bagels? This short expected value problem can be used as a warm up or a quick assessment at the end of a more detailed lesson. Teacher commentary includes the solution to the...
Other
Casting Out Nines: A Math Computation Checking Strategy
It's a mathematician's dream come true. An easy trick for checking mathematical computations, without a calculator! Believe it or not, it works with all four operations.
University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge: Nrich: Adding Plus
On this one page website sharpen your logic and addition skills while working on this challenge. The solution is available to double check your solution.
University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge: Nrich: Super Value Codes
On this one page website sharpen your logic and addition skills while working on this challenge. The solution is available to double check your solution.
NumberNut
Number Nut: More Than Two Addends
Develop strategies for adding more than two addends with this quick addition lesson. Examine how grouping numbers can help make adding multiple numbers easier. Then, practice your new skills using the related interactive games that are...
NumberNut
Number Nut: Subtracting Through Twenty
Review or learn the basics of single-digit subtraction in this concise lesson that has related vocabulary and strategies for solving subtraction problems. This lesson includes lots of examples and links for two interactive subtraction...
NumberNut
Number Nut: Subtracting More Than Two Values
Get the facts on how to subtract more than two values in this short subtraction lesson. This lesson offers step-by-step examples, suggested strategies and shortcuts, and links to related interactive games. Both games are fast-paced and...
University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge: Nrich: Ladybugs in the Garden
On this one page website sharpen your logic and addition facts skills while working on this challenge. The solution is available to double check your solution.
University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge: Nrich: Make 37
Sharpen your logic and addition skills while working on this challenge. Solution.