This page gives students a guide for problem solving. A list of strategies is presented, and each strategy has an example to demonstrate it.
This article is written by Sarah Anderson, John Cavanagh, and Saul Landau of the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) in Foreign Policy in Focus, Volume 2, Number 1, January 1997. Key points, problems, and recommendations are discussed.
This concept teaches students to find missing sides and angles in non-right triangles using the Laws of Sines and Cosines.
A free CK-12 account is required to view all materials.
This video lesson uses the technique of induction to show students how to analyze a seemingly random occurrence in order to understand it through the development of a mathematical model. [41:24]
Understanding how phrases are built and function will be an invaluable tool for students. This tutorial features many examples to help the student in grasping grammar concepts.
As you learn possessive forms, you will also learn about gerunds, present participles, compound nouns and more. This is a very complete resource tool for this subject.
This lesson plan sets the ground work for an introduction to and then exploring the concepts that are the foundation for probability. Lots of resources are available for teachers and students at this website.
Tells the story of a kid diagnosed with anemia. Be sure to read the whole story and click on the "more articles" tab to get more information.
This interactive exercise focuses on volume equations, measurement, and problem solving skills to compare the volume of 3D figures constructed from similar amounts of construction materials.
Learn how to identify different types of conflict in literature in this animated video [2:46] from WNET.
An interactive quiz which provides students with word problems involving a percentage to be solved. Students input their solution and have the program evaluate it. Hints are available if the student needs them, and explanations are provided after the correct answer is displayed.
Zooming In On Figures
Unit Overview
Type of Unit: Concept; Project
Length of Unit: 18 days and 5 days for project
Prior Knowledge
Students should be able to:
Find the area of triangles and special quadrilaterals.
Use nets composed of triangles and rectangles in order to find the surface area of solids.
Find the volume of right rectangular prisms.
Solve proportions.
Lesson Flow
After an initial exploratory lesson that gets students thinking in general about geometry and its application in real-world contexts, the unit is divided into two concept development sections: the first focuses on two-dimensional (2-D) figures and measures, and the second looks at three-dimensional (3-D) figures and measures.
The first set of conceptual lessons looks at 2-D figures and area and length calculations. Students explore finding the area of polygons by deconstructing them into known figures. This exploration will lead to looking at regular polygons and deriving a general formula. The general formula for polygons leads to the formula for the area of a circle. Students will also investigate the ratio of circumference to diameter ( pi ). All of this will be applied toward looking at scale and the way that length and area are affected. All the lessons noted above will feature examples of real-world contexts.
The second set of conceptual development lessons focuses on 3-D figures and surface area and volume calculations. Students will revisit nets to arrive at a general formula for finding the surface area of any right prism. Students will extend their knowledge of area of polygons to surface area calculations as well as a general formula for the volume of any right prism. Students will explore the 3-D surface that results from a plane slicing through a rectangular prism or pyramid. Students will also explore 3-D figures composed of cubes, finding the surface area and volume by looking at 3-D views.
The unit ends with a unit examination and project presentations.
Gallery OverviewAllow students who have a clear understanding of the content thus far in the unit to work on Gallery problems of their choosing. You can then use this time to provide additional help to students who need review of the unit’s concepts or to assist students who may have fallen behind on work.Problem DescriptionsSprinklersExplore different sprinkler layouts, looking at circular areas (and partial circles) to decide which will be best to water a lawn.Leaning TowerChoose a scale and use a ruler and protractor to make a simple scale drawing.Pizza DoublerIf you could choose between doubling the fraction of the pizza that a slice is, or doubling the radius, which option would give you more pizza? In this problem you will investigate which choice gives a bigger slice.Area and ScaleWhen a figure is redrawn at a larger scale the side lengths increase by the factor of the scale (if the scale doubles the size, the side lengths double also). But, does the area increase the same way? Explore a dynamic sketch and see how area changes when the scale changes.Tree House 1Given plans for a tree house, redraw the plans at a different scale.
This Math Page tutorial explains how to multiply a number by a fraction or a mixed number and then features a practice exercise.
This lesson teaches students how to use colored blocks to model word problems. There are several sets of problems each for addition / subtraction, multiplication / division, and ratio word problems.
Video demonstrations featuring a teacher and several students will show you how to add positive and negative numbers in order to simplify numerical expressions.
This is a great starting point for anyone doing research or a report on asthma. Organized into several sections -- including "Signs and Symptoms," "Screening and Diagnosis," and "Treatment."
Here's a very informative article from Medline about albinism. It contains a lot of technical information like: symptoms, causes, tests, and treatment.
This site provides an interesting lesson on credit and how we use it, the dangers of over-using it, bankruptcy and its consequences, and more.