Should immigrants who illegally reside in the United States be eligible for citizenship? With information about undocumented immigrant population estimates, sanctuary cities, and unaccompanied immigrant children, pupils consider the pros...

According to some estimates, there are more guns than people in the United States. Learners decide if America should enact more gun control laws. They analyze information about gun deaths in the United States by year, read about the...

Many people think the best solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a two-state solution. After reviewing the available resources, scholars determine whether they agree with that approach. They analyze graphs and charts about...

Five questions—multiple-choice, fill in the blank, and discussion—make up an interactive that challenges scholars to mail a teddy bear using the smallest box possible without squishing it. A box with movable sides allows mathematicians...

Don't toy with using a fun lesson. Scholars design new toys and then create scale drawings. They determine the volume and surface area of the toys, and then research prices of raw materials to estimate the manufacturing costs.

High schoolers begin a discussion on diversity and determine the percent of the population that speak another language at home in the US. Classmates make a prediction of the percentage of people that speak another language at home in...

Think bungee jumping looks scary? Knowing the science behind bungee jumping might make it less so. Using an egg and rubber bands, young engineers model bungee jumping. They test the distances that the egg falls for different numbers of...

No one knows what the future will bring, but it's likely to be warmer than before. Pupils first learn about the NASA GISS ModelE2, a global climate model, and about representative concentration pathways that estimate the global output of...

Drink in a lesson on volume. Individuals first view a video clip where a conical cup is used to pour water into a water cooler jug. Using provided dimensions of the cup and the jug, they estimate the number of cups required to fill the...

How fast are those thumbs? Pupils view a short video showing a person typing out a text message in a speed challenge. They use the information they can glean from the video to estimate the number of seconds it will take to completely...

Warm up to the idea of subtracting integers. After watching a video where the contents of a cup instantly freeze when tossed into the air, pupils estimate the air temperature of Duluth, Minnesota (where the video was made). They then use...

Give a round of applause for completing the task. Scholars watch a video that shows an extremely fast clapper and a timer. The activity requires applying concepts of rates and proportional reasoning to estimate the number of claps in one...

Design it with soda cases. After viewing a picture of a soda case display, pupils develop questions about the design using information from the teacher. Scholars use the information and their knowledge about area and multiplication to...

Determine how far the ball rolled. The class watches a video of a person controlling a sphere rolling on the floor. Pupils develop some questions about the video and make estimates to the solutions of the questions. The teacher provides...

Apply the mantra of real estate to solar panels: location, location, location. Learners use a Solar Pathfinder to conduct site assessments for possible spots on school grounds to place a solar module. They find the amount of insolation...

Put the infinite power of the sun to good use. Young scientists learn about solar energy by completing a challenging project. They imagine that they are in charge of planning a solar panel array for a building and must decide where to...

Following a catchy video about decomposing numbers, young mathematicians build and write numbers using dice. Class members work to create an anchor chart that displays six ways to make numbers. Beans get scooped and estimated, then...

How is sea coral like a thermometer? Part three of a six-part series from NOAA describes how oceanographers can use coral growth to estimate water temperature over time. Life science pupils manipulate data to determine the age of corals...

Ice cores provide scientists with knowledge of historic melt layers, air temperatures, greenhouse gases, and climate stability. Scholars work in groups to build layers representing snow and ice over thousands of years. Then, groups...

Not too much, not too little, but just right in the middle. Using researched census population data, young statisticians plot population data over time. They develop an idea of midpoints to estimate populations for years that census data...

If you've always wanted to know the perimeter of the state of Oklahoma, now's your chance. A measuring activity has learners use three different sticks to estimate the perimeter of the state. Along the way, they learn how convergent and...

Even though this activity is just a simple review of estimation, it is a fast and easy way to explore this topic. Young mathematicians estimate the number of items contained in two jars and discuss their answers. Afterwards, they can use...

Students use proportions to estimate the size of populations. They describe the data with using a graph or table of the estimate. Students use descriptive statistics to calculate mean, median, and mode. They also compare and contrast an...

Students, while utilizing the classroom and the computer lab with a bag of colored candy, gather and interpret data, calculate averages and draw conclusions and draw a bar graph. They estimate how many candies are in the bag, what...