Lessons
Lessons in Units
CCSS Units
Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow
How long does it take to donate to Locks of Love? In this lesson students write and solve equations to determine how long they'd need to grow out their hair to have enough to share with others.
Pandemic
Why hasn't everyone already died of a contagion? And, if vampires exist, shouldn't we all be sucking blood by now? Students model the exponential growth of a contagion and use logarithms and finite geometric series to determine the time needed for a disease to infect the entire population.
House of Pain
Why are so many Americans dying from opiate overdoses? Students use exponential decay and rational functions to understand why addicted patients seek more and stronger opioids to alleviate their pain.
Sweet Tooth
How much Halloween candy should you eat? Students interpret graphs to compare the marginal enjoyment and total enjoyment of two siblings feasting on piles of Halloween candy and figure out how much pleasure you get (or don't) from eating more and more.
Connected
Do social networks like Facebook make us more connected? Students create a quadratic function to model the number of possible connections as a network grows, and consider the consequences of relying on Facebook for news and information.
New-tritional Info - NEW!
How long does it take to burn off food from McDonald's? Students use unit rates and proportional reasoning to determine how long they'd have to exercise to burn off different McDonald's menu items.
Tip Jar
How should we tip in a restaurant? Students use mental math, percents, and proportional reasoning to compare different approaches to tipping.
Payday
How much do different professionals earn in a year? Students use rates and ratio reasoning to compare how much a teacher, the President, and LeBron James earn...and to compare how much value the create.
About Time
How has the pace of technology changed over time? Students create timelines of major technological milestones and calculate the time between major events using absolute value and operations on integers.
You're So Fined
How hard is it to pay off municipal fines? Students use linear equations and solve linear systems to examine what happens when people are unable to pay small municipal fines. They also discuss what can happen to the most financially vulnerable citizens when cities rely heavily on fines for revenue.
Ad Vantage
How much of what we see is advertising? Students decompose irregular shapes to find how much of their visual field is occupied by advertising in real life and online.
Billions & Billions
How has the human population changed over time? Students develop exponential models to analyze human population growth and explore the impact this growth will have in areas around the world.
Biggest Loser (Classic)
How should the winner of The Biggest Loser be chosen? Students compare pounds lost vs. percent lost, and analyze historical data to determine which method produces the fairest game.
Fall of Javert
Could Inspector Javert have survived the fall? Students use quadratic models to determine how high the bridge was in Les Misérables, and explore the maximum height from which someone can safely jump.
Key Board
How do you create simple video games? Students apply geometric transformations to build (and play) their own games.