Bargain
at the Fair- Students will decide between full passes or admission plus ride tickets. Use
data from your own local fair to make this more meaningful.
Brain
Teasers is a collection of Problem Solving and
Mathematical Reasoning activities for grades 3-8. It gives hints
and solutions. New Problem Solving and Mathematical Reasonin gs
are added regularly so strands and standards covered will vary. A
commercial site.
Circles
of Light: The Mathematics of Rainbows How are rainbows
formed? Why do they only occur when the sun is behind the observer? If the sun is low on the horizon, at what angle in the sky should we expect to see a rainbow? This lab helps to answer
these and other questions by examining a mathematical model of light passing through a water droplet.
City
Park ProjectYou own a contract company which builds playgrounds. The city of San Jose has asked your company to submit a bid for a new neighborhood park. The
location and size of the playground are on the attached map. As
part of this bid, you must do the following: develop and calculate
the cost of building the playground; make a scale drawing; and
make a model of the playground.
Currency
Comparison is a well structured activity for students
to compare the buying power of $5.00 American with $5.00
Australian.
The
Customized Box Factory-
Experience the Problem Solving and Mathematical Reasonings
encountered by a box factory that has to design and create boxes
to accommod ate odd shapes. The Problem Solving and Mathematical
Reasoning accommodates easy to difficult skills of both teacher s
and students. (This link also has a more complex lesson on
designing a city park.)
A
Fractals Lesson - A fractals lesson for elementary and
middle school students where students will draw a Sierpinski
Triangle and a Koch Snowflake while exploring the properties of fr
actals. Teachers notes are included.
Free
Standing Structure - This activity is designed to show
students that cost, time, planning, modeling, designs, teamwork,
and application are important in learning about "real world"
construction projects.
Good
News Bears - On line
interdisciplinary project specifically designed for middle school
students and teachers. This project revolves around an interactive
stock market competetition between classmates using real time
stock market data from the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ.
There are lesson plans, reproducible pages, and student forms.
Great
Penny Toss A simple yet powerful activity classroom activity on probability.
Jill's
Lesson Plans - Jill Tucker has put together a
collection lessons which use the Internet as a resource. The
lessons are appropriate for all grade levels.
Lesson
plans using statistics and the Internet With all the
data currently on the Internet, the Office for Mathematics,
Science and Technology Education felt it would be beneficial to
have lesson resources for teachers who would like to involve
statistics and the Internet in their classroom. Some of the
lessons have the students collecting data one day and then
collecting data from the same place the next day and analyzing
them. With the Internet we are using data that is not out-of-date
or unimportant.
Mathematics
of Cartography explores mathematical topics associated
with maps. It includes a history of cartography, the basics of
scale, longitude and latitude, projections, career information,
teachers' notes, and a rich list of geography links. Problems use
web-based technologies to solve.
Our
Town This lesson uses and/or introduces new tools in geography, math, and science to make
observationsand draw conclusions on the local temperature
variations in your area.
PlaneMath
is a set of on-line lessons and activities that invites children
to experience the excitement, power, and fun of mathematics and
aeronautics. The project targets 4-7th grade students in schools
across the country. The on-line lessons and activities will be
useful to students in mainstream general education as well as
special education settings. All lessons are responsive to the
standards of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.
Polyhedra
in the Classroom This unit by Suzanne Alejandre
introduces the concepts of surface area and volume while focusing
on the importance of measurement. Students calculate the surface
area of a rectangular prism; name the characteristics (number of
edges, faces, vertices, and the shape of the face) of 6 specific
polyhedra (cube, tetrahedron, octahedron, dodecahedron,
icosahedron, and cuboctahedron); demonstrate their understanding
of the characteristics of polyhedra; and explore polyhedra in the
real world through crystalline structures and 'buckyballs'. All
objectives are coordinated with the NCTM Standards.
SkyMath -- designed for middle school mathematics teachers. It contains all of the information needed for teachers
to use the 15 classroom activities of SkyMath, including the
module itself. We believe that it is an effective and innovative
way to present elements of the middle school mathematics
curriculum. A
Skymath
Module Context Matrix has been prepared that identifies which
of the NCTM standards are addressed in each of the 15 activities.
Susan Boone's Internet Projects: A group of lessons that incorporate
the use of the Internet. Students are asked to research various
topics and apply applicable math skills to answers questions.
Taking
Stock : A six lesson unit on the stock market.
Worksheets are included with each activity. Grade levels could be
from 7 grade and above.
Teaching
Mathematics in the Middle and Secondary Schools - 40
lesson plans created by teachers from Florida. Covers grades 4-12.
Lessons contain detailed explanations and directions. A number of
the lessons are integrated with other disciplines. NCTM standards
are documented. Some lessons utilize websites. Projects require
practical use of math in real life situations. More than 30
lessons with fairly simple preparation. Lessons require 1 to 2
days.
Understanding
Algebraic Factoring While working through algebraic
factoring it is helpful to remember that all you are doing is
working with breaking up and putting back together squares and
rectangles!
Understanding
Factoring Through Geometry A collection of lessons on
factoring from Forum Teacher Associate Suzanne Alejandre. Using
algebra tiles, students find a geometric basis for factoring.
Understanding
the Principles of Budgeting - Lesson helps students to understand the principles of budgeting. Students use newspapers to understand the costs involved in living
on their own.
The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation offers professional development opportunities for
teachers through summer institutes and a Web site. Visit http://www.woodrow.org/teachers/ to see lesson plans developed in math and science institutes over the last few years.
Nancy Powell is the Lead Teacher of the Mathematics Department at Bloomington High School
in Bloomington, IL
For more information or comments about this Web site, contact Nancy
Powell at npowell@bhs-ms.org
The BHS Mathematics Department would like to thank Dave's World (dave-world.net) for providing the
Web space for this site.
Nancy
Powell