Problem Solving Template

Problem solving template used in my classroom. In PDF and Word formats. Created by members of Cohort 1 in Collaboration with Dr. Vicich.

Inside Mathematics Educator Resource Site

Inside Mathematics is a professional resource for educators passionate about improving students' mathematics learning and performance. This site features classroom examples of innovative teaching methods and insights into student learning, tools for mathematics instruction that teachers can use immediately, and video tours of the ideas and materials on the site.

Powers of Ten - Number Sense

Students (and adults) have a difficult time trying to grasp very large (and very small) numbers. This activity uses an interesting context (astronomical objects0 to stimulate their interest in modeling enormous distances in a way that can help them understand relative distances. Students naturally arrive at the need for a different kind of number scale than linear and arrive at a "power of ten" (logarithmic) scale. The lesson includes an extension for advanced students ready to begin to investigate logarithms.

Directed Distance - An Introduction to "Graph"

This annotated lesson can be used to introduce directed distance and the concept of graph. It can be used as the very first experience students have with graphs, as a review, and/or as an introduction to “circular” coordinates (you can choose to never refer to them as polar coordinates). It is highly interactive and connects the concepts of “new” graphing systems to rectangular coordinates. Initially, there is a brief history given and review of the Cartesian rectangular coordinate system.

Number Systems - Place Value

Exploring different number bases may not only help you if you are needing in some particular application (like computers or electronics), but also in helping you make sense of the number system with which you are most familiar – the base 10 number system.

Dimensional Analysis: Using the Idea of Identity Multiplication

Reflecting over my years of teaching, I have found that students are challenged by what would seem to be an easy question – “How do we convert from one unit of measure to another?” When confronted with this type of question, I have come to recognize that many students fall back on relying on a procedure that they try to recall.

Rational Number Project - Initial Fraction Ideas

This is a series of lessons from the Rational Number Project (http://www.cehd.umn.edu/ci/rationalnumberproject/default.html) including teacher notes, activities ready to be copied. The Rational Number Project (RNP) is a cooperative research and development project funded by the National Science Foundation. Project personnel have been investigating children’s learning of fractions, ratios, decimals and proportionality since 1979. This book of fraction lessons is the product of several years of working with children in classrooms as we tried to understand how to organize instruction so students develop a deep, conceptual understanding of fractions. You may pick and choose the lessons that you would like to try and do not need to complete them all in order.

Fraction Operations and Initial Decimal Ideas

This is a series of lessons from the Rational Number Project (http://www.cehd.umn.edu/ci/rationalnumberproject/rnp2.html) including teacher notes, activities ready to be copied. The Rational Number Project (RNP) is a cooperative research and development project funded by the National Science Foundation. Project personnel have been investigating children’s learning of fractions, ratios, decimals and proportionality since 1979. This book of fraction lessons is the product of several years of working with children in classrooms as we tried to understand how to organize instruction so students develop a deep, conceptual understanding of fractions. You may pick and choose the lessons that you would like to try and do not need to complete them all in order.

Spreading Rumors!

Welcome to Rumor Middle School! News at Rumor Middle School travels quickly! Use the information presented in the problem to determine how many kids will know a rumor an hour and ten minutes after the first person shared it.  Then, find what time it will be when over 4,000 students know the rumor! Stick with it! Use multiple strategies, and be ready to share and defend your work!

Piggy Bank Ca$h!

Meredith has LOTS of one dollar bills in her piggy bank, and she discovers something special when she stacks the bills in piles of 5, 6, and 8 bills. Find a pattern to answer some questions about what will happen if she stacks the bills in piles of 9. 

Can We SWIM Yet?

The Johnson family is SO excited to go swimming in their new pool! Which of the three hoses should they use to fill it the most quickly? How long will it take to fill if they use all three of the hoses? 

Biking to Bernie's

Division of Fractions

This is a series of 4 activities designed to help students to focus on the idea of division from a proportional reasoning perspective.

Fractions and Free Throws

Do we always add fractions by first finding a common denominator, etc.? Or, could it make sense to add two fractions by adding the numerators and denominators? This activity explores these questions.

Number Systems - Binary, Decimal, and Other systems

Students can struggle mightily with understanding place value as they begin to add and subtract numbers and "carry" and "borrrow". This short activity can be a great way to help students understand the concept of place value.

Creating a box plot on the TI 84 Calculator

Steps for entering data into lists and creating a box (box and whisker) plot. 

Creating a Histogram using the TI 83/84 calculator

The steps to creating a histogram on the TI calculator. 

Two Pails

This problem will challenge you to think about how to acquire 5 gallons of water if the only tools that you have are a 3 gallon pail and a 7 gallon pail. A great logic problem!

Broomsticks - Multiplicative Reasoning

This is the broomsticks activity created by Ted Coe.

NEW and IMPROVED Division of Fractions

A NEW and IMROVED division of fractions activity designed to develop the...do I have to say it..."Keep Change Flip"...algorithm.  Includes student pages, teacher pages (with answers and description of the intended thinking) and a Smartpen pencast where I provide an overview/example of the intended thinking. Note that the pencast document comes in the form of a PDF - check out this for details as you need a PDF reader like Adobe Acrobat X in order to view the pencast. -http://www.livescribe.com/en-us/faq/online_help/Maps/Connect_Desktop/c_viewing-and-playing-a-pencast-pdf.html

Multiplying Improper Fractions

Instructional videos for multiplying mixed numbers/improper fractions. The intent is NOT to share the most efficient, compact way to multiply. The point is to make sense of multiplication. Part 1 - multiplying two digit whole numbers in context. Part 2 - multipying mixed numbers using the idea from Part 1

Outlier Activity

Goal: The goal of this activity is for students to interpret measures of central tendency when an outlier is present. They will also be able to identify which value is an outlier and create a boxplot as well.

Inferences about two populations

Goal: The goal of this activity is for students to compare to samples from two different populations. They will make inferences based on what they find from their dot plot.

Contingency Table Activity

Goal: The goal of this activity is to read a table and gather data from it and use it to create a contingency table. Students will then be asked a series of questions discussing what they see when they create a contingency table and what are some of the benefits with using one.

Understanding probability using a deck of cards

This activity is to familiarize your students with a standard deck of cards. Have your students get into groups of 2 or 3 and walk them through the beginning part. You can chose to have your students simplify each probability as a fraction or round to the thousandths place. Hopefully the students will see that all of the probabilities they find will always be between 0 and 1 inclusive.

Creating a Probability Model

Goal: The goal of this activity is for students to grasp the understanding of how to put together a probability model for the rolling of a single die and also the sum of the rolls of two dice.

Estimating the Mean

Goal: The goal of this activity is for students to randomly draw words from an excerpt to estimate the mean length word count of the entire document. 

Creating a histogram using temperatures

Goal: The goal of the current activity is to have students read data from a map of the U.S., create a frequency table, answer questions and create a frequency histrogram.

Area of a house

Goal: The goal of this activity is for students to find the area of a house floor plan. They will need to use their knowledge of rectangles to identify the missing side lengths to find the correct area. This also allows students to see how area is used in a real-life application.

Scatter Plot Activity

Goal: The goal of this activity is for students to see different types of correlation and recognize the patterns associated with each type of correlation. They will then have to create their own scatter plot based on directions given.

Is a Super Ball REALLY Super?

Is a Super Ball REALLY "super?"  This activity allows students to collect data and to make an argument regarding this quetions. See the PowerPoint for details about the activity... Note: It is best to gain access to an authentic, Wham-O Super Ball made with Zectron! https://www.amazon.com/orginal-super-ball-wtih-zectron/dp/B0001ZN49I/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1513808409&sr=8-2&keywords=whamo+super+ball