Illustrative Mathematics
Chess Club
When the membership in a chess club changes, it is your mathematicians' job to find out how many boys and girls are attending and the percent change from last year. The activity provides a great compound problem finding the different...
Mathematics Vision Project
Module 5: Rational Functions and Expressions
Where do those asymptotes come from? Learners graph, simplify, and solve rational functions in the fifth module of a 10-part series. Beginning with graphing, pupils determine the key characteristics of the graphs including an in-depth...
EngageNY
Conducting a Simulation to Estimate the Probability of an Event II
Add some randomization into simulations. The 11th installment in a series of 25 presents two new methods to use in simulations--colored disks, and random numbers. Pupils use random numbers to run simulations where the probabilities make...
Illustrative Mathematics
Voting for Three, Variation 1
This is an opportunity for young mathematicians to apply reasoning to solve real-world problems with ratios. Even though there are three candidates for class president, students will only consider two at a time, making the first problem...
Teach Engineering
Optimizing Pencils in a Tray
What do you call a story about a broken pencil? Pointless. Scholars may not be telling stories when using the resource, but they are solving optimization problems involving the maximum number of pencils that can fit on a tray. They...
EngageNY
Events and Venn Diagrams
Time for statistics and learning to overlap! Learners examine Venn Diagrams as a means to organize data. They then use the diagrams to calculate simple and compound probabilities.
EngageNY
Systems of Equations Leading to Pythagorean Triples
Find Pythagorean Triples like the ancient Babylonians. The resource presents the concept of Pythagorean Triples. It provides the system of equations the Babylonians used to calculate Pythagorean Triples more than 4,000 years ago. Pupils...
Illustrative Mathematics
Sports Equipment Set
Many students like to play sports and the equipment that goes with it costs money. The resource sets up an inequality that gives a total amount needed to purchase the equipment and the initial amount of money already obtained. In order...
Mathematics Assessment Project
College and Career Readiness Mathematics Test C1
Challenge high schoolers with a thorough math resource. The 20-page test incorporates questions from upper-level high school math in applied and higher order questions.
Computer Science Unplugged
The Muddy City—Minimal Spanning Trees
What is the most efficient way to ensure everyone is connected? Individual pupils determine the least expensive route to pave roads in a fictional city. In doing so, they learn to find the minimal spanning tree for the situation. They...
Curated OER
Distances Between Houses
This resource sneaks in the math so your learners will be adding and subtracting positive and negatives on a number line while thinking they are mapping out houses. The activity starts by putting houses the appropriate distance away from...
Mathematics Assessment Project
Bestsize Cans
Traditional calculus problem made simple. In the high school assessment task, learners determine the minimum surface area for a can of a given volume using algebraic and numerical methods to solve the problem. No calculus...
Illustrative Mathematics
Regular Tessellations of the Plane
Bringing together the young artists and the young organizers in your class, this lesson takes that popular topic of tessellations and gives it algebraic roots. After covering a few basic properties and definitions, learners attack the...
Illustrative Mathematics
Springboard Dive
Quadratics and height application problems go hand in hand like teenagers and sleeping in. High schoolers must look at the equation of a diver's height and calculate such features as the height of dive board, time entering the water, and...
West Contra Costa Unified School District
Lowest Common Multiple through the Grades
The LCM will be your new BFF. Learners review least common multiple and least common denominator applications, mostly on fractions, from middle school. Scholars then see how the LCM can be applied to various types of problems from...
EngageNY
Addition and Subtraction Formulas 2
Knowing the addition formulas allows for the calculations of double and half formulas. The fourth installment of 16 has the class use the addition formula to develop the double angle trigonometric formulas. Using the double formula,...
Curated OER
Measuring the Area of a Circle
When mathematical errors happen, part of the learning is to figure out how it affects the rest of your calculations. The activity has your mathematicians solving for the area of a circular pipe and taking into consideration any errors...
Illustrative Mathematics
Coins in a Circular Pattern
What starts as a basic question of division and remainders quickly turns abstract in this question of related ratios and radii. The class works to surround a central coin with coins of the same and different values, then develops a...
Illustrative Mathematics
Shortest Line Segment from a Point P to a Line L
One of the hardest skills for many young geometers to grasp is to move beyond just declaring obvious things true, and really returning to fundamental principles for proof. This brief exercise stretches those proving muscles as the...
Mathematics Assessment Project
Sidewalk Patterns
Sidewalk patterns ... it's definitely not foursquare! Learners investigate patterns in sidewalk blocks, write an expression to represent the pattern, and then solve problems using the expressions.
EngageNY
Characteristics of Parallel Lines
Systems of parallel lines have no solution. Pupils work examples to discover that lines with the same slope and different y-intercepts are parallel. The 27th segment of 33 uses this discovery to develop a proof, and the class determines...
Illustrative Mathematics
Gifts from Grandma, Variation 3
There are three money word problems in this activity, each one is set in the same context. The first asks what was the total amount grandma spent, the second how many grandchildren grandma has, and the third asks how much grandma spent...
Illustrative Mathematics
Shirt Sale
Everyone loves a good deal, and your mathematician's job is to calculate the original price when given the discount. A different type of problem than the traditional "find the percent change" has your learners working backwards to...
Illustrative Mathematics
Are These Right?
Is that a right triangle or a wrong triangle? Young mathematicians look at eleven different shapes and use a measuring tool of their choice to determine which triangles have right angles. Consider cutting out sets of the shapes to...