251 Modeling Orbital Debris Problems Resource Type: Instructional Resource -- Best Practice Discipline: Mathematics Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 8–12 Professional Commentary: In this week-long unit, students examine the problem of space pollution caused by human-made debris in orbit to develop an understanding of functions and modeling. The unit provides students an opportunity to use spreadsheets, graphing calculators, and computer graphing utilities.... Career Fields: Agricultural & Environmental Systems, Finance, Government & Public Administration, Marketing Projects: Standards First 252 Shrinking Candles, Running Water, Folding Boxes Resource Type: Instructional Resource -- Promising Practice Discipline: Mathematics Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 8–12 Professional Commentary: This activity has students look for functions within a given set of data. After analyzing the pattern of the data, students should be able to determine a type of function that best represents the data.... Projects: COR Resource Type: Instructional Resource -- Best Practice Discipline: Mathematics Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 8–Postsecondary Professional Commentary: This lesson presents a classic game-show scenario: You pick one of three doors in hopes of winning a prize. The host opens one of the two remaining doors which reveals no prize, then asks if you want to stick with your original choice or switch to the other unopened door.... 254 Explorations with Chance Resource Type: Instructional Resource -- Promising Practice Discipline: Mathematics Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 5–10 Professional Commentary: This site describes three creative games that give students an opportunity to apply concepts related to probability. Students are asked to determine whether the games are fair, and if unfair, how they might be changed.... 255 Supply and Demand - An Application of Linear Equations Resource Type: Instructional Resource -- Promising Practice Discipline: Mathematics Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 8–10 Professional Commentary: This activity focuses on having students create and solve a system of linear equations in a real-world setting. By solving a system of two equations in two unknowns, students will find the equilibrium point for supply and demand.... Career Fields: Agricultural & Environmental Systems, Business & Administrative Services, Manufacturing Technologies, Marketing Projects: Standards First 256 Smokey the Bear Takes Algebra Resource Type: Instructional Resource -- Best Practice Discipline: Mathematics Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 8–12 Professional Commentary: This lesson introduces students to the many factors that play a role in creating a forest-fire danger index. Students work with the Angstrom and Nesterov Indexes.... Career Fields: Agricultural & Environmental Systems Projects: Standards First 257 Understanding Probability Resource Type: Instructional Resource -- Promising Practice Discipline: Mathematics Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 4–7 Professional Commentary: Students will learn the basic definition of probability and how to express it as a fraction, decimal, or percent. The lesson includes in-class and take-home activity sheets, discussion questions, a glossary, adaptations and extensions, a list of readings, and a video clip.... 258 The Game of SKUNK: Choice and Chance in Life Resource Type: Instructional Resource -- Promising Practice Discipline: Mathematics Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 5–8 Professional Commentary: In this lesson, students will practice decision-making skills that can lead to a better understanding of choice versus chance and help build the foundation for mathematical probability. The game of Skunk can be played by the entire class but requires careful explanation by the teacher so as not to reinforce the common misconception that the probability of an event (e.g., rolling 1 on a die) increases when the event has failed to occur for a while.... Career Fields: General Career Skills Projects: Standards First Resource Type: Instructional Resource -- Promising Practice Discipline: Mathematics Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 3–8 Professional Commentary: Students develop their skills in collecting and recording data using the real-world situation of bouncing a tennis ball. They use the data collected to formulate the relationship between the dependent and independent variables in their experiment.... Career Fields: Business & Administrative Services, General Career Skills Projects: Standards First 260 The Devil and Daniel Webster Resource Type: Instructional Resource -- Promising Practice Discipline: Mathematics Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 8–12 Professional Commentary: Students investigate a salary-minus-commission problem defined recursively that has a surprising solution. This activity is ideal done on a spreadsheet but can also be explored on a calculator or by hand.... Career Fields: Agricultural & Environmental Systems, Business & Administrative Services, Construction Technologies, Engineering & Science Technologies, General Career Skills Projects: Standards First |