Teach Engineering
Load It Up!
See how a marshmallow can hold up a bridge load. Teams take a closer look at the design of bridge piers. They determine the types of loads that might affect a bridge, and, using that information, they calculate the needed cross-sectional...
Cornell University
Scaling Down: Effects of Size on Behavior
Two activities explore the concept of size, especially small sizes down to the nano. Scholars practice determining volume, mass, and density and calculate exponential increases and decreases. They then predict and test the effect of size...
Teach Engineering
Using Hooke's Law to Understand Materials
Provide a Hooke for a lesson on elasticity with an activity that has groups investigate a set of springs. They use a set procedure to collect data to calculate the spring constant for each spring using Hooke's Law. The groups...
Teach Engineering
Protecting Our City with Levees
Teams use the design process to design, build, and test a model levee to protect the town from a wall of water. A handout provides a price list for the materials learners can use to build their levee within a budget.
Teach Engineering
Dress for Success
Dressing for success is not always about looking sharp. Sometimes it is about staying warm and dry. Present your class with an activity that challenges groups of pupils to design a layered material for blizzard conditions. The teams test...
Alabama Learning Exchange
Building Functions: Inverse Functions from Tables and Graphs
Is the inverse a function? Scholars learn how to examine a function to answer this question. Using an online interactive, they examine the properties of inverse functions to compare to the original function.
EngageNY
TASC Transition Curriculum: Workshop 8
Lights, camera, action! Math educators consider how to improve their instruction by examining a model of the five-practice problem-solving model involving a movie theater. Participants examine cognitive demand in relation to problem...
NASA
NASA Engineering Design Challenges - Spacecraft Structures
What kind of design challenges are there in building structures to support rocket engines? The unit takes design teams through the process of building the lightest possible thrust support structure that can withstand the necessary forces...
Virginia Department of Education
Arithmetic and Geometric Sequences
Future mathematicians learn about arithmetic and geometric sequences, as well as common ratios and differences as they complete a worksheet matching sequences with the algebraic expressions that represent them.
Virginia Department of Education
Equation Vocabulary
You'd feel bad if someone called you by the wrong name — and equations are no different. Young mathematicians learn the vocabulary associated with equations and expressions identifying these components in sample equations.
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Spring Scale Engineering
After examining how a spring scale works, teams work together to design their own general measurement device. Reading material provides background information, but there is no part of the procedure in which learners handle an actual...
Virginia Department of Education
Properties of Real Numbers
Learners use paper cups and colored chips to observe properties of operations with real numbers. As a class, students brainstorm and use manipulatives to demonstrate associative, commutative, distributive identity and inverse properties....
Virginia Department of Education
Road Trip
Help plan a road trip with linear equations. Scholars consider two different rental car companies and write equations representing the cost for each company. They graph the system of equations to determine the conditions under which each...
Virginia Department of Education
Translate and Evaluate
Translate, evaluate, educate. Discover how to translate and evaluate expressions. Young mathematicians first review words and phrases that indicate operations and learn to write algebraic expressions from verbal descriptions....
Virginia Department of Education
Quadrilateral Sort
If only you had a Sorting Hat to sort out quadrilaterals. Learners sort cutouts of quadrilaterals based on their properties and attributes. A flowchart helps them organize the results of the activity.
Virginia Department of Education
What's the Point?
Point your class in the right direction in plotting points with three activities that give scholars a chance to learn about and practice plotting points on a coordinate plane. They draw figures on the coordinate plane and list out the...
Virginia Department of Education
Exploring Quadrilaterals
Sort this resource into the Use pile. Scholars investigate attributes of quadrilaterals and then use the results to sort and classify the shapes labeling each figure with their properties to justify the classifications.
Curated OER
Reflection on Educational Goal Setting and Self-Assessment
Third graders evaluate their performance at school. They examine their most recent spelling test scores to determine whether or not they met their goals for the test.
Curated OER
Measurement: Measuring Hand and Feet
Here is a good lesson which invites learners to practice measurement using standard and nonstandard measuring tools. For this measurement lesson, learners work with length, width, height, and area. They use standard and nonstandard...
Curated OER
Measure Up!
Discover ways to measure items without standard tools. In this measurements instructional activity, learners estimate how long certain objects are by measuring with a non-standard measuring tool. Students check their estimates with a...
Curated OER
Multiplying by 10, by 100, and by 1,000
Fourth graders write tenths and hundredths in decimal and fraction notations. In this math instructional activity, learners know the fraction and decimal equivalents for halves and fourths. Everyone answers numerous questions posed by...
Curated OER
Area & Perimeter Assessment And Practice
Using a pre-test, this lesson starts by establishing differentiated learning groups. Each group practices determining area and perimeter using interactive web sites small groups are then pulled aside and given additional support as...
Curated OER
Managing a Checkbook
How do grown ups do it? Teach your upper graders the ins and outs of personal finance by having them use their algebra skills to balance a checkbook. They examine the financial side of math, set up a checking account, and balance their...
Curated OER
One Size Fits All, Part 1
Can you tell how tall someone is just by looking at their feet? In this activity, young mathematicians measure their height, arm span, and foot size, graph their findings, and answer questions about how these measurements are related....