Student groups are challenged to create food packages for specific foods. They focus on three components in the design of their food packages; the packages must keep the food clean, protect or aid in the physical and chemical changes that can take place in the food, and present the food appealingly. They design their packaging to meet these requirements.

The purpose of this task is to provide students an opportunity to use mathematics addressed in different standards in the same problem.

The purpose of this task is for students to find the answer to a question in context that can be represented by fraction multiplication. This task is appropriate for either instruction or assessment depending on how it is used and where students are in their understanding of fraction multiplication.

The purpose of this task is to provide students with a situation in which it is natural for them to divide a unit fraction by a non-zero whole number.

Vision is the primary sense of many animals and much is known about how vision is processed in the mammalian nervous system. One distinct property of the primary visual cortex is a highly organized pattern of sensitivity to location and orientation of objects in the visual field. But how did we learn this? An important tool is the ability to design experiments to map out the structure and response of a system such as vision. In this activity, students learn about the visual system and then conduct a model experiment to map the visual field response of a Panoptes robot. (In Greek mythology, Argus Panoptes was the "all-seeing" watchman giant with 100 eyes.) A simple activity modification enables a true black box experiment, in which students do not directly observe how the visual system is configured, and must match the input to the output in order to reconstruct the unseen system inside the box.

Light up your love with paper circuits this Valentine’s Day—no soldering required! Create a sure-to-impress flashing birthday card or design a light-up Christmas card—all with paper circuits! In this activity, students are guided through the process to create simple paper circuitry using only copper tape, a coin cell battery, a light-emitting diode (LED) and small electronic components such as a LilyPad Button Board. Making light-up greeting cards with paper circuitry is great way to teach the basics of how circuits function while giving students an outlet to express their artistic creativity.

This high level task is an example of applying geometric methods to solve design problems and satisfy physical constraints. This task is accessible to all students. In this task, a typographic grid system serves as the background for a standard paper clip.

Using paper, paper clips and tape, student teams design flying/falling devices to stay in the air as long as possible and land as close as possible to a given target. Student teams use the steps of the engineering design process to guide them through the initial conception, evaluation, testing and re-design stages. The activity culminates with a classroom competition and scoring to evaluate how each team's design performed.

This task assumes students have an understanding of the relationship between functions and equations. Using this knowledge, the students are prompted to try to solve equations in order to find the inverse of a function given in equation form: when no such solution is possible, this means that the function does not have an inverse.

Students act as civil engineers developing safe railways as a way to strengthen their understanding of parallel and intersecting lines. Using pieces of yarn to visually represent line segments, students lay down "train tracks" on a carpeted floor, and make guesses as to whether these segments are arranged in parallel or non-parallel fashion. Students then test their tracks by running two LEGO® MINDSTORMS® NXT robots to observe the consequences of their track designs, and make safety improvements. Robots on intersecting courses face imminent collision, while robots on parallel courses travel safely.

The difference between an architect and an engineer is sometimes confusing because their roles in building design can be similar. Students experience a bit of both professions by following a set of requirements and meeting given constraints as they create a model parking garage. They experience the engineering design process first-hand as they design, build and test their models. They draw a blueprint for their design, select the construction materials and budget their expenditures. They also test their structures for strength and find their maximum loads.

The purpose of this task is to investigate the meaning of the definition of function in a real-world context where the question of whether there is more than one output for a given input arises naturally. In more advanced courses this task could be used to investigate the question of whether a function has an inverse.

Second part to the C2 Superlesson for ROV's from Kim Stokes and Ben Wells, Siuslaw Elementary School.

The point of this task is to emphasize the grouping structure of the base-ten number system, and in particular the crucial fact that 10 tens make 1 hundred.

Students engage in an interactive "hot potato" demonstration to gain an appreciation for the flow of electrons through a circuit. Students role play the different parts of a simple circuit and send small items representing electrons (paper or candy pieces) through the circuit.

Students apply several methods developed to identify and interpret patterns to the identification of fingerprints. They look at their classmates' fingerprints, snowflakes, and "spectral fingerprints" of elements. They learn to identify each image as unique, yet part of a group containing recognizable similarities.

The goal of this task is to look for structure and identify patterns and then try to find the mathematical explanation for this. This problem examines the ''checkerboard'' pattern of even and odd numbers in a single digit multiplication table.

In this activity students perform a role play of immigrant mothers and daughters arguing over who should get to keep the daughter's wages. This activity is used to teach with the film Heaven Will Protect the Working Girl, but can be completed without the film.

This simple conceptual task focuses on what it means for a number to be a solution to an equation, rather than on the process of solving equations.

In this activity, students will learn how water can be polluted by algal blooms. They will grow algae with different concentrations of fertilizer or nutrients and analyze their results as environmental engineers working to protect a local water resource.