Let units pave the way to success. A set of five questions in a helpful PowerPoint presentation highlights the SBAC Claim 1 Target C high school item specifications. It covers the use of units to steer solutions, identifying appropriate...

Use proportions to determine the travel distance in a given amount of time. The 10th installment in a series of 33 uses tables and descriptions to determine a person's constant speed. Using the constant speed, pupils write a linear...

Connect division with multiplication through the use of models. Groups solve problems involving the division of a whole number by a fraction using models. The groups share their methods along with the corresponding division and...

Drive home math concepts with an engaging task. Learners follow a verbal description to fill in a table and create a distance-time graph representing a car journey. They then answer questions by interpreting the graph.

Slow and steady wins the race? In the assessment task, scholars calculate the rates at which different snails travel in order to find the fastest snail. Hopefully, your class will move much more quickly in finishing the task!

To solve or not to solve that is the problem. A slide presentation of 17 items show different ways that Smarter Balanced assesses Claim 2, problem solving. The items span from sixth and seventh grade concepts to highlight the...

Develop a model for prep. The resource provides examples of how items reflect modeling and data analysis for Smarter Balanced assessments. Items use on-grade or below-grade content to focus on the modeling aspect. The questions revolve...

Take flight with a fun activity focused on graphing data on a coordinate plane. As learners study the data for Granny's hot-air balloon trip, including the time of day and the distance of the balloon from the ground, they practice...

Keep moving along a curve. Two items in the set of released free-response questions from the 2010 AP® Calculus BC exam involve movement along a graph. One involves particle motion along a polar curve while the other uses a squirrel...

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...

Busy buses bustling back and forth. In this middle school assessment task, learners use information given in a graph to answer questions about bus schedules. They then determine how many times a bus passes by other buses going in the...

Learners practice relating rules of trigonometry and properties of circles. With a few simplifying assumptions such as a perfectly round earth, young mathematicians calculate the lengths of various paths between satellite and...

Taxi! Have your travelers figure out how far they can go in a taxi for $10.00. They must account for the mileage rate and tip in their calculation. They can set up a table or make an equation to solve for the exact mileage they can...

Your young taxi drivers evaluate and articulate the reasoning behind statements in a conceptual task involving linear data. The given data table of distances traveled and the resulting fare in dollars is used by learners to explore...

Would you go by bus or car on the autobahn? Here, learners use distance, time, and average speeds to investigate the fastest way to get from Berlin to Frankfort for a soccer game. It might be fun to start with a discussion or short video...

Help mathematicians see that a formula found in a physics book has an algebraic structure. Though the formula given in the resource looks complicated, learners are to break down the expressions and interpret each part separately. Young...

A car traveling down a steep hill is the model for this resource. The confusion comes when the elevation, E, is given in terms of distance, d. The distance, d, is the horizontal distance from E. Therefore, the equation, E = 7500 – 250d,...

A mail truck travels the same amount of miles per day. It will be up to your algebra learners to find an equation for this mailman’s truck. One needs a good understanding of rate of change and the initial value for this model. The...

Scholars must determine the maximum area for a rectangular plot of land enclosed with 100 meters of rope. As the work they discover patterns and numerical approaches to solve the problem.

Santa sure is fast. In the assessment task, learners calculate the number of minutes Santa can spend at each house. This calculation requires the use of given population demographics data.

In Utah, one stretch of highway goes for 106 miles without a single gas station. Where should people build one? Scholars face the dilemma of where to place a new gas station between three cities. They consider distance and proximity to...

Changing ratios make for interesting problems. Pupils solve problems that involve ratios between two quantities that change. Groups use tape diagrams to represent and solve classroom exercises and share their solutions. 

Combine total quantities and equivalent ratios in problem solving. The fifth lesson in a series of 29 presents problems that can be solved using equivalent ratios. Pupils use part-to-part ratios and either sums or differences of the...

Data distributions can be compared in terms of center, variability, and shape. Two exploratory challenges present data in two different displays to compare. The displays of histograms and box plots require different comparisons based...