Candy is always an effective motivator! A fun math activity uses M&M's and Skittles to explore two-way frequency tables and conditional probability. The candy can serve a dual purpose as manipulatives and experimental data.

Future statisticians and potential psychics first conduct an experiment to collect data on whether a person can tell if someone is staring at them. Statistical methods, such as hypothesis testing, chi-square tests, binomial tests, and...

There are only 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary and those who don't. The lesson includes four activities in which students learn binary, convert binary to images, understand CCD arrays, and interpret...

To complete homework or not to complete homework ... that is the question. Decide whether it makes a difference on finals by doing homework. Individuals create a scatter plot and find a line of best fit for data on the percent of...

We taste with our taste buds, so why do flavors change when we have a stuffy nose? Scholars experiment with taste testing while holding their noses and then while smelling. They record their observations in pairs and come together to...

What, where, how? Readers hone their analysis skills as they determine the narrator's point of view in Eight Days. They complete a literary analysis chart and essay to describe what and where events take place. Individuals then discuss...

Learners compare and contrast family life today with family life in the 1830s. They conduct research on Old Sturbridge Village, read primary source documents, and develop a list of generalizations comparing/contrasting families of the...

Space science and math collide in this inquiry that investigates launching times for antacid-tablet rockets! Upper elementary or middle school learners collect data as they launch these mini rockets. They apply concepts of place value...

Imagine being a war photographer embedded in World War I. How do you see your role? How might your photos influence that study of the war? Of history? Class members select a photograph, adopt the perspective of the photographer, and...

Learners construct and use inverse functions to model a real-world context. They use the inverse function to interpolate a data point.

Eighth graders utilize the SOAP method to analyze a work of art and relate it to what they know about the Progressive Era and the reasons why cities changed and the ways in which cities changed during the end of the 19th century. They...

Students examine what the word "family" means today. They identify cultural traditions that are still popular in the United States. They read primary source documents and discover how advice is passed on from generation to generation.

Students study a way to quantify the process of photosynthesis during a given time using the Elodea plant. They design a hypothesis that they test in the hands on activity. They compare the amounts of photosynthesis that occur during low...

Students test water to determine the dissolved oxygen content while displaying the proper use of testing instruments while visiting water testing sites. They determine if the amount of dissolved oxygen is appropriate for the tested...

Great real-world math application! Have the class compare and contrast their estimated home price and income data with actual data. In groups, they participate in simulations to discover how the housing market and mortgages operate....

Middle schoolers study the components of a deck of cards and conduct an initial experiment in the probability of drawing various types of cards from a deck. They play two rounds of poker to discover the probability of drawing several...

Fourth and fifth graders define the term media literacy, then come up with examples that they share with the class. The types of media studied are auditory, visual, and written. Learners get together in pairs and perform a media...

Here is a lesson that takes an interesting approach to analyzing data using box and whisker plots.  By using an applet that dynamically generates Venn diagrams, the class forms a strategy/algorithm for guessing the rule that fits...

Election years provide the opportunity to evaluate news media as well as the next prospective president. High schoolers read about the same event in several different news sources, varying in type, origin, and political leaning,...

El Nino, La Nina ... and the Santa Maria? The 11th installment of a 23-part NOAA Enrichment in Marine sciences and Oceanography (NEMO) program explains the mechanism of El Nino/Southern Oscillation. Pupils use previous data to determine...

Introduce teams to quantum dot solutions with an activity that has them expose solutions to a blacklight, observe the colors, and take measurements. Groups graph the data and analyze the dependence between particle size and...

The last segment of the nine-part unit makes a connection between springs and linear equations. Groups hang weights from the spring and measure its length. Then, using the data collected, they calculate the slope to find the k-value...

Water, water, everywhere? Each pupil first uses an Internet program to select 50 random points on Earth to determine the proportion of its surface covered with water. The class then combines data to determine a more accurate estimate.

Pupils learn to apply strings in computer science. They master two new user interface elements and also use string type data to represent ASCII characters. Finally, individuals create an app for Mad Libs in the eighth lesson of the series.