Students explore the properties of composites using inexpensive materials and processing techniques. They create beams using Laffy Taffy and water, and a choice of various reinforcements (pasta, rice, candies) and fabricating temperatures. Student groups compete for the highest strength beam. They measure flexure strength with three-point bend tests and calculations. Results are compared and discussed to learn how different materials and reinforcement shapes affect material properties and performance.

Using gumdrops and toothpicks, students conduct a large-group, interactive ozone depletion model. Students explore the dynamic and competing upper atmospheric roles of the protective ozone layer, the sun's UV radiation and harmful human-made CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons).

In this activity, kids will work on two fundamental early math skills – sorting/classifying, and graphing. There will also be some great fine motor skill practice! Includes place-based discussion questions, activity instructions, extension activities, songs, and student graph worksheets.

NGSS: K-LS1-1, 1-LS1-1, partially meets K-ESS3-1 (book and discussion)

Common Core: MP.4

Time: 45 minutes

Matierals: bag of dried beans ("16 bean soup"), paper bowls, glue, chart paper, the book "One Bean" or similar book about growing food plants, especially beans.

In this activity, students learn about their heart rate and different ways it can be measured. Students construct a simple measurement device using clay and a toothpick, and then use this device to measure their heart rate under different circumstances (i.e., sitting, standing and jumping). Students make predictions and record data on a worksheet.

This lesson plan and assessment takes you on a journey to discover if pollinators find your campus a hospitable home. Core compliant for Grades 3-5, but adaptable to all ages. Are you working with distance learners or in a non-traditional teaching environment? This lesson plan is perfect for you! All you need is a pencil and outdoor space, including sidewalks, local parks, greenways, libraries, and beyond!

This course is also intended to provide the student with a strong foundation for intermediate algebra and beyond. Upon successful completion of this course, you will be able to: simplify and solve linear equations and expressions including problems with absolute values and applications; solve linear inequalities; find equations of lines; and solve application problems; add, subtract, multiply, and divide various types of polynomials; factor polynomials, and simplify square roots; evaluate, simplify, multiply, divide, add, and subtract rational expressions, and solve basic applications of rational expressions. This free course may be completed online at any time. It has been developed through a partnership with the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges; the Saylor Foundation has modified some WSBCTC materials. (Mathematics 001)

Visually searchable database of Algebra 1 videos. Click on a problem and watch the solution on YouTube. Copy and paste this material into your CMS. Videos accompany the open Elementary Algebra textbook published by Flat World Knowledge.

Beginning and Intermediate Algebra by Tyler Wallace is a textbook licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. There is also a student guide and supplemental videos for each section.

Students will be introduced to addition, multiplication, and division of the benchmark fractions 1/2, 1/3, and 1/4 with a fun, hands-on experience. Students will layer the dry ingredients for a brownie recipe into a canning jar while having a rich discussion that aides visualizing operations with fractions. This shared experience can be referred to during future instruction.

Students learn about material properties, and that engineers must consider many different materials properties when designing. This activity focuses on strength-to-weight ratios and how sometimes the strongest material is not always the best material.

Students toss coins to determine what traits a set of mouse parents possess, such as fur color, body size, heat tolerance, and running speed. Then they use coin tossing to determine the traits a mouse pup born to these parents possesses. Then they compare these physical features to features that would be most adaptive in several different environmental conditions. Finally, students consider what would happen to the mouse offspring if those environmental conditions were to change: which mice would be most likely to survive and produce the next generation?

This task presents a simple but mathematically interesting game whose solution is a challenging exercise in creating and reasoning with algebraic inequalities. The core of the task involves converting a verbal statement into a mathematical inequality in a context in which the inequality is not obviously presented, and then repeatedly using the inequality to deduce information about the structure of the game.

Bernoulli's principle relates the pressure of a fluid to its elevation and its speed. Bernoulli's equation can be used to approximate these parameters in water, air or any fluid that has very low viscosity. Students learn about the relationships between the components of the Bernoulli equation through real-life engineering examples and practice problems.

Students use the scientific method to determine the effect of control surfaces on a paper glider. They construct paper airplanes (model gliders) and test their performance to determine the base characteristics of the planes. Then they change one of the control surfaces and compare the results to their base glider in order to determine the cause and effect relationship of the control surfaces.

Bianca visits a bike shop and learns how bicycle gears work in this Cyberchase video segment.

This Cyberchase video segment features Bianca, who must figure out the fastest route to a movie premiere.

This video segment from Cyberchase introduces the idea of inverse operations as Bianca imagines herself as a spy.

In this card game students play in pairs to practice recognizing the biggest number.

The purpose of this task is for students to interpret two distance-time graphs in terms of the context of a bicycle race. There are two major mathematical aspects to this: interpreting what a particular point on the graph means in terms of the context, and understanding that the "steepness" of the graph tells us something about how fast the bicyclists are moving.