This task provides an opportunity to work on the Standard for Mathematical Practice 3 Construct Viable Arguments and Critique the Reasoning of Others.
This short video and interactive assessment activity is designed to teach fourth graders about converting years into weeks.
This short video and interactive assessment activity is designed to teach fourth graders about converting years to days.
This short video and interactive assessment activity is designed to give fourth graders an overview of comparison of weights (english units).
Students act as mining engineers and simulate ore mining production by using chocolate chip cookies. They focus on the cost-benefit analysis of the chocolate ore production throughout the simulation, which helps them understand the cost of production. As students “mine” with tools such as paperclips and toothpicks, they keep records of their costs—land (cookie), equipment used, cookie size before and after production, and time spent. While the goal is to make as much profit as possible, other costs and goals are taken into consideration—as in real-world mining engineering. For example, mining engineers also consider the resulting amount of destruction to the lithosphere when deciding the best method to obtain ore. Thus, a line item for land reclamation cost is included from the beginning. A provided worksheet serves as a profit and loss statement.
While the task as written does not explicitly use the term "unit rate," most of the work students will do amounts to finding unit rates. A recipe context works especially well since there are so many different pair-wise ratios to consider.
Students learn and apply concepts in thermodynamics and energy—mainly convection, conduction, and radiation— to solve a challenge. This is accomplished by splitting students into teams and having them follow the engineering design process to design and build a small insulated box, with the goal of keeping an ice cube and a Popsicle from melting. Students are given a short traditional lecture to help familiarize them with the basic rules of thermodynamics and an introduction to materials science while they continue to monitor the ice within their team’s box.
A brief refresher on the Cartesian plane includes how points are written in (x, y) format and oriented to the axes, and which directions are positive and negative. Then students learn about what it means for a relation to be a function and how to determine domain and range of a set of data points.
Understanding alternate coordinate systems. Created by Sal Khan.
Understanding why correlation does not imply causality (even though many in the press and some researchers often imply otherwise).
Students explore the science of microbial fuel cells (MFCs) by using a molecular modeling set to model the processes of photosynthesis and cellular respiration—building on the concept of MFCs that they learned in the associated lesson, “Photosynthesis and Cellular Respiration at the Atomic Level.” Students demonstrate the law of conservation of matter by counting atoms in the molecular modeling set. They also re-engineer a new molecular model from which to further gain an understanding of these concepts.
This task suggests ways to incorporate counting circles into classroom activities.
Students practice counting sequences by standing in a circle and counting one by one.
This short video and interactive assessment activity is designed to teach second graders about counting cubes and creating a place value diagram.
This activity allows students to practice counting.
Students who work on this task will benefit in seeing that given a quantity, there is often more than one way to represent it, which is a precursor to understanding the concept of equivalent expressions.
This task gives students another way to practice counting and gain fluency with connecting a written number with the act of counting. This task should be introduced by the teacher and would then be a good independent center.
The most engaging way to practice counting with students is to have them count meaningful things in their lives. Since five-year-olds are very focused on themselves this is easily done by allowing them to count themselves, their friends and objects within the classroom that relate to their daily lives.
This short video and interactive assessment activity is designed to teach first graders about counting rectangles, squares, and triangles in composite figures.
This short video and interactive assessment activity is designed to teach fourth graders about counting right angles in a turn.