Illustrative Mathematics
Distance to School
A single problem requires learners to write two expressions representing the total distance between a student's home and school over a time span of four weeks. A thorough commentary follows that will help you explore the solutions with...
Achieve
Framing a House
If members of your class wonder where they can use the math they learn in middle school, let them discover the answer. Learners apply geometry concepts of scale and measure to calculate the costs of framing a house addition.
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
National Debt and Wars
Take a functional approach to the national debt. Learners collect information about the national debt by decade and plot the data. They determine whether an exponential curve is a good fit for the data by comparing the percent changes...
Curated OER
Equivalent Fraction Paper Strips
Young learners compare the relative values of fractions by making physical representations. They fold and label strips of paper that are equal in length to represent "one whole" and the equal parts that fractions represent. Also, they...
Curated OER
Lesson New Museum: Exploring the Building
Explore the possibilities of buildings, public spaces, and architectural design. Learners examine the work of SANAA architects Sejima & Nishizawa through background information, images, and guided class discussion. This instructional...
Earth Watch Institute
Entering Local Groundhog Data in an Excel Spreadsheet
Here is a cross-curricular ecology and technology lesson; your learners create spreadsheets depicting the location and number of groundhog dens in a local park. They research groundhogs and analyze data about where the groundhog...
Curated OER
Incredible Integers!
There are three parts to this lesson on integers. In the first, learners explore positive and negative numbers on an actual painter's tape number line and by playing a "Hot Seat" game. In part two, they view a BrainPop video and work...
Curated OER
Solving Problems Involving Subtraction
Here is an excellent lesson plan on solving subtraction word problems using fractions and mixed numbers. Learners complete three activities that will help them to explore and better-understand the world of mixed numbers. Fraction bars...
Mathematics Assessment Project
Octagon Tile
A connecting-the-dots activity seems too easy for seventh grade but connecting vertices may prove a challenge. Class members first examine a figure created by drawing squares around the inside of an octagon and connecting the...
Willow Tree
Multiplying Polynomials
Make two parts into a whole. Scholars learn to multiply polynomials to create a simplified polynomial expression. Polynomials include monomial, binomials, and trinomials.
Willow Tree
Line Plots
You can't see patterns in a jumble of numbers ... so organize them! Learners take a set of data and use a line plot to organize the numbers. From the line plot, they find minimum, maximum, mean, and make other conclusions about the...
California Education Partners
T Shirts
Which deal is best? Learners determine which of two companies has the best deal for a particular number of shirts. They begin by creating a table and equations containing each company's pricing structure....
Shodor Education Foundation
InteGreat!
Take a great look at integration! Young scholars use an interactive to learn how to integrate a function. Learners input a function and view the integral as well as see a graphical representation.
California Education Partners
Bake Sale
Work with fractional cookies. The three-part assessment task checks the pupils' ability to find the product of fractions and whole numbers, mixed numbers, or fractions. Learners determine the amount of ingredients needed and how many of...
California Education Partners
Improving Our Schools
Split the work three ways. Learners use their knowledge of fractions to solve problems dealing with splitting up work loads evenly between three groups. Scholars determine the fractional portion of work each group will do along with...
California Education Partners
Soccer Snacks
Make the cookies healthy. The assessment task asks pupils to determine the number of cookies they could make based on a given amount of ingredients. Given two sugar substitutes, learners determine which substitute would be better and...
California Education Partners
John's Trip Disneyland
It all adds up to one. Pupils solve several items that involve finding sums of fractions in relationship to a whole. The assessment task uses fractions with unlike denominators to determine the amount of a tank of gas and the amount of...
Curated OER
Measuring Volume/Capacity Using the Metric System
There is more than one way to measure an amount, as learners discover by applying multiple measurement tools in these activities. Centimeter cubes, cylinders, beakers, and measuring cups are used to find the volume of regular and...
Curated OER
Grouping Buttons
Looking for a good lesson on counting and sorting? This lesson is worth a look! In this classification lesson, learners sort buttons by color, shape, shiny verses not shiny, or number of holes.
Illustrative Mathematics
The Marble Jar
A jar is filled with 1,500 marbles and customers of a bank can enter a contest to guess the correct percentage of blue marbles. How can an employee at the bank estimate the actual percentage without physically counting all 1,500 marbles?...
Illustrative Mathematics
Throwing Baseballs
This is a wonderful exercise for learners to apply their critical thinking skills along with their knowledge of quadratic functions and parabolas. Young mathematicians investigate a real-world scenario about the height a baseball reaches...
Curated OER
Rainbow Number Line
Guide your kindergartners to create memorable, colorful number lines that they will use throughout the school year. Using sentence strip and a black marker or card stock printed in a teachers font, create traceable numbers from 1 to 20...
Illustrative Mathematics
Guess My Number
Make a game out of solving equations. This particular activity works well for pairs of learners. Follow the instructions to have player one pick a number and player two verbally give an equation. Participants need to make sense of a...
Illustrative Mathematics
Traffic Jam
Help your learners understand dividing with fractions by using these methods to solve. Chose from two different number lines or linker cubes. This practices "how many groups?" style division problems which help them comprehend why...