"A research center of Stanford University’s Graduate School of Education, youcubed provides tasks, courses, and scholarships to inspire all students with open, creative mindset mathematics. Teachers and students will find learning opportunities, videos, lessons, and evidence-based ideas to support their math instruction and learning" (https://www.youcubed.org/our-activities/).
Students will have an opportunity to try out different combinations of colored blocks.
Are you spooked by Friday the 13th? How many of these cryptic FridayÕs are possible in one year?
HereÕs one to make into a puzzle. Print, cut and have some fun! Or take the next challenge and construct (draw) your own!
This is a game that has been around for hundreds of years! Can you master the game of NIM?
Have you ever thought about the mathematics of beading? This challenge will have you thinking about symmetry and all of the ways you can create different necklaces with the same beads.
This is a really interesting problem from NRICH. Please visit their site to find many more rich and engaging math tasks.
HereÕs a journey into codes and cryptography. Have you ever started with a shape and kept adding additional shapes? What happens when you do?
In this task students explore changing areas and patterns of numbers. It is a low floor high ceiling task that can be used with many grade levels. The question posed is : what is the biggest fence that can be made out of 36 pieces of fence?
Students number sense and multiplication facts in a game format.
Our friends at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute have created an interesting task where they share data they collected from Blue Whales. We send many thanks to the MBARI scientists and the American Museum of Natural History for creating and posting these wonderful resources. This collection of videos, text passages and interactive data graphs will light up minds as students explore data that has been collected to explain what goes on when a Blue Whale is under the surface of the ocean.
This task reminds us of Four 4Õs because students are practicing number combinations to get specific results.
In this task, students explore a growing pattern of circles.
Students will use number cubes to practice with multiplication facts and probability.
This problem requires children to think about factors and multiples and, in particular, common factors, but it is not necessary for them to have met this term prior to having a go at the task. It offers opportunities for pupils to ask their own questions, find examples, make conjectures and begin to generalize.
Maybe some of you recall from childhood, discovering a set of 6 little cardboard cards filled with numbers that came as a prize in a Cracker Jack Box? I clearly remember the day I got this prize. I was fascinated that it always worked, playing it over and over again with anyone who would engage me. I carried the cards with me everywhere and eventually they ended up wet mush after spinning through the washing machine in the pocket of my pants. Decades later they were reintroduced into my life. It was Christmas day in London and everyone was excited about Òcrackers.Ó I didnÕt understand the excitement until Jo explained that it was a little game between two people where the winner got a prize Ð not food. Guess what prize I won? The 6 cards were back in my life!
This activity provides students an opportunity to go through the data cycle process focusing on a statistical investigative question based on something students would like to learn about themselves. In our day-to-day experiences we are surrounded by variability and this activity provides students an opportunity to formulate a question that can be answered with data, as they collect, consider, and analyze the data and then interpret and communicate their findings. We are thankful for Giorgia Lupi and Stefanie Posavec who shared their Dear Data journey with the world.
This task is an opportunity for students to think about why the rules of exponents work, so they can use them with that understanding, rather than trying to remember rules. The handout has a table with some sections already completed so students can complete the rest by noticing patterns and discussing them.
Many students in the US think of Pi as a number they should memorize, when the most important idea for students to learn is that Pi is a very cool relationship, that exists inside all circles in the world. In this task students will find that relationship themselves, through cutting and folding, and be asked to reflect on it.
This game provides students practice subtracting from 999. Students should be encouraged to check each players work and provide feedback for mistakes. Remember, mistakes are awesome and they make our brain grow!
At youcubed we are so excited to share this activity derived from a problem in Core-Plus Mathematics, Course 1. The problem included here is from Unit 3, Linear Functions, where students explore a small sample data set from the World Health Organization, Global Health Observatory Data Repository, faostat3.fao.org. We love the use of real data as students work, in this case, with linear functions and data.