Students make several models of the solar system to learn the positions of the planets in the solar system as well as relative distances and sizes. Creation of these models will help them identify the planets by size, shape, color,...

Young scientists gain a better understanding of space, the solar system and its vastness by creating a scale model. Students first need to calculate the distance between each of the nine planets according to the size of their scale. This...

Construct tangent lines and make the connection to tangent functions. An informative instructional activity reviews the geometry origins of the tangent function. Pupils use that information to determine how to construct a tangent to a...

It's opposite day! The fourth installment of a 21-part module teaches scholars about opposites of integers and of zero. Number lines and real-world situations provide an entry point to this topic.

Mississippi has both the highest obesity and poverty rate in the US. Does the rest of the data show a correlation between the poverty and obesity rate in a state? Learners tackle this question as they practice their skills of regression....

Positive and negative numbers are all around us. Groups read short story contexts and identify a rational number that represents the values in the context. They order the rational numbers and interpret statements of inequality.

A clever lesson designed around an apple awaits your learners. Descriptive words are used to explain what they believe is inside a bag while using their five senses. Students read the story The Apple Pie Tree and are introduced to the...

Your learners use many different number representations like positive and negative integers, exponents, radicals, and combinations of operations as they learn and strengthen their use of the order of operations. Thoughtfully organized to...

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...

Students explore energy production by participating in a class discussion. In this renewable energy lesson, students discuss the differences between solar, coal, wind and fossil fuel energy sources and why some are better for the...

A basic set-up leads to a surprisingly complex analysis in this variation on the question of surrounding a central circle with a ring of touching circles. Useful for putting trigonometric functions in a physical context, as well as...

Get your classes moving and practicing sequences at the same time! Learners move about the room solving problems and finding their solutions. Problems include both recursive and explicit formulas and both geometric and arithmetic sequences.

Now this lesson sounds fun! Students throw a ball, film it as it soars through the air, and use a spreadsheet to collect data. A scatterplot is created to produce a quadratic regression equation, an equation in vertex form, and an...

Young geometers become pool sharks in this analysis of the angles and lengths of a trick shot. By using angles of incidence and reflection to develop similar triangles, learners plan the exact placement of balls to make the shot....

Fourth graders measure the change in the size of their shadow over time. They visit a fixed structure and record the date, the time, and the measurement of the length of their shadow. They do this over the course of the school year. They...

Simulate chariots and driver and practice rounding numbers with your class. In teams of three, they race to the finish line where the teachers asks the chariot driver to round a certain number. They take turns being the driver.

Use your pupils' sense of curiosity to explore the Parallelogram Law. Here is an activity that outlines a complete lesson from beginning to end, allowing pupils to follow a conjecture through to the proof stage.

Don't let your young adults get lost in the alphabet soup of their paychecks and federal income taxes. Using sample pay stubs and reproductions of government forms, your class members will identify the purpose of such forms as a W-4 and...

Here is an excellent cross-curricular lesson. Learners relate multiplication to area by making a grid on graph paper, and then creating the same grid in real space outside in the school yard.

The lesson starts out with a brain drain, which is a great way to get students to activate prior knowledge and build lasting connections. They tell everything they know about prime factorization, use their knowledge to...

Middle and high schoolers research the life of Pythagoras and the Pythagorean theorem. They write a short biography of Pythagoras and learn to apply the theorem in their study of right triangles.

It's time to crack open that piggy bank and see what's inside. First, count up the pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters, identifying what fraction of them are dimes. Then calculate the total value of the coins, writing another fraction...

There's no need to think outside the box for this one! Scholars measure the length, width, and height of various boxes. Results help develop the formulas for the surface area and volume of rectangular prisms.

Learners study hurricanes; in particular, what they look like, how they are formed, how they are categorized, how they are named, and how they are tracked. They examine the science of hurricanes as well as the mathematics of hurricanes.