This 6-minute video lesson looks at greatest common divisors.
This short video and interactive assessment activity is designed to teach fourth graders about greatest common factor.
This short video and interactive assessment activity is designed to teach third graders about forming largest and smallest numbers (even and odd).
This short video and interactive assessment activity is designed to teach fourth graders about forming the largest or smallest possible number.
This short video and interactive assessment activity is designed to teach third graders about grouping with illustrations - word problems.
This short video and interactive assessment activity is designed to teach second graders about understanding grouping with illustrations.
This short video and interactive assessment activity is designed to teach fourth graders about finding the total number: given remainder and number needed.
This short video and interactive assessment activity is designed to teach fifth graders about finding the remainder - long division word problems.
This task adds some rigor to the activity of growing bean plants. By collecting growth data, students practice measuring and recording length measurements.
This task is designed to make students think about the meaning of the quantities presented in the context and choose which ones are appropriate for the two different constraints presented. In particular, note that the purpose of the task is to have students generate the constraint equations for each part (though the problem statements avoid using this particular terminology), and not to have students solve said equations.
Students visit second- and fourth-grade classes to measure the heights of older students using large building blocks as a non-standard unit of measure. They also measure adults in the school community. Results are displayed in age-appropriate bar graphs (paper cut-outs of miniature building blocks glued on paper to form bar graphs) enabling a comparison of the heights of different age groups. The activities that comprise this activity help students develop the concepts and vocabulary to describe, in a non-ambiguous way, how heights change as children age. This introduction to graphing provides an important foundation for creating and interpreting graphs in future years.
This problem asks the students to represent a sequence of operations using an expression and then to write and solve simple equations. The problem is posed as a game and allows the students to visualize mathematical operations. It would make sense to actually play a similar game in pairs first and then ask the students to record the operations to figure out each other's numbers.
This short video and interactive assessment activity is designed to teach second graders an overview of subtraction (numbers to 100) - word problems.
This video lesson uses the technique of induction to show students how to analyze a seemingly random occurrence in order to understand it through the development of a mathematical model. Using the medium of a simple game, Dr. Lodhi demonstrates how students can first apply the 'rules' to small examples of the game and then, through careful observation, can begin to see the emergence of a possible pattern. Students will learn that they can move from observing a pattern to proving that their observation is correct by the development of a mathematical model. Dr. Lodhi provides a second game for students in the Teacher Guide downloadable on this page. There are no prerequisites for this lesson and needed materials include only a blackboard and objects of two different varieties - such as plain and striped balls, apples and oranges, etc. The lesson can be completed in a 50-minute class period.
This marbel counting iteration of greater than, less than, and equal to with a specific "target number" help strengthen the concept for students.
This problem could be used as an introductory lesson to introduce group comparisons and to engage students in a question they may find amusing and interesting. More generally, the idea of the lesson could be used as a template for a project where students develop a questionnaire, sample students at their school and report on their findings.
This task involves fraction multiplication that can be solved with pictures or number lines.
In this activity students measure their hand span. A line graph is used to record the data from the glass.
In this group task students collect data and investigate whether there is a relationship between height and hand size among the students in the class.
Students explore the concept of similar right triangles and how they apply to trigonometric ratios. Use this lesson as a refresher of what trig ratios are and how they work. In addition to trigonometry, students explore a clinometer app on an Android® or iOS® device and how it can be used to test the mathematics underpinning trigonometry. This prepares student for the associated activity, during which groups each put a clinometer through its paces to better understand trigonometry.