Economic factors greatly influence the quality of education. The educational systems of developing countries are often on a substandard level when compared to nations of economically advanced countries. View and compare the classrooms of students from Kenya and Japan. [3:10]

Carbon calculators, no matter how well intended as tools to help measure energy footprints, tend to be black boxes and can produce wildly different results, depending on the calculations used to weigh various energy factors. By comparing different calculators, learners can analyze which ones are the most accurate and relevant, and which are the most transparent.

Students learn about Ken and Joab, two boys who are starting first grade. Ken attends school in Japan, while Joab lives in Kenya. Students compare and contrast the circumstances surrounding the two boys' experiences at school.

This task gives students an opportunity to work with exponential functions in a real world context involving continuously compounded interest. They will study how the base of the exponential function impacts its growth rate and use logarithms to solve exponential equations.

The purpose of this task is for students to compare fractions using common numerators and common denominators and to recognize equivalent fractions.

This task is meant to address a common error that students make, namely, that they represent fractions with different wholes when they need to compare them. This task is meant to generate classroom discussion related to comparing fractions. Particularly important is that students understand that when you compare fractions, you implicitly always have the same whole.

This task is appropriate for assessing student's understanding of differences of signed numbers. Because the task asks how many degrees the temperature drops, it is correct to say that "the temperature drops 61.5 degrees." However, some might think that the answer should be that the temperature is "changing -61.5" degrees. Having students write the answer in sentence form will allow teachers to interpret their response in a way that a purely numerical response would not.

The purpose of this task is to foster a classroom discussion that will highlight the difference between multiplicative and additive reasoning.

The purpose of this task is to assess studentsŐ understanding of multiplicative and additive reasoning.

This lab activity is designed to allow students to experience what an increase in mechanical advantage means. Students determine the mechanical advantage of three pulley set-ups. Students also measure the work input and output, then calculate the efficiency. Finally, students determine the relationship between the mechanical advantage and the efficiency of the pulleys.

The purpose of this task is to generate a classroom discussion that helps students synthesize what they have learned about multiplication in previous grades.

This task can be used to either build or assess initial understandings related to rational approximations of irrational numbers.

Students must calculate the volume of a cone in this real world task.

This task provides the opportunity for students to reason about graphs, slopes, and rates without having a scale on the axes or an equation to represent the graphs. Students who prefer to work with specific numbers can write in scales on the axes to help them get started.

Spreadsheets Across the Curriculum module/Geology of National Parks course. Students study how discharge per unit area varies with elevation in the high country of Glacier National Park from USGS hydrograph data from Swiftcurrent Creek and its tributary Grinnell Creek..

The purpose of this task is to help develop students' understanding of addition of fractions; it is intended as an instructional task.

The purpose of the task is for students to compare signed numbers in a real-world context.

The focus of this task is on understanding that fractions, in an explicit context, are fractions of a specific whole. In this problem there are three different wholes: the medium pizza, the large pizza, and the two pizzas taken together.

This is an inquiry where students will be comparing and contrasting two different types of leaves with a partner.