Middle School Math Career-based activities

[RamistThomist]

I'm helping do a summer camp for middle schoolers. The general idea relates to math and career activities. This will go through about several weeks. One example, one I won't use, is bridge building. They will use math concepts to build bridges like engineers.

I'm trying to brain storm for similar ideas.

 

[RamistThomist]

It will be based around these concepts/standards

1. Compute unit rates associated with ratios of fractions, includingratios of lengths, areas, and other quantities measured in like or differentunits. For example, if a person walks ½ mile in each ¼ hour, compute the unitrate as the complex fraction ½/¼ miles per hour, equivalently 2 miles perhour.

2. Recognize and represent proportional relationships between quantities.

3 Use proportional relationships to solve multi-step ratio and percen tproblems of simple interest, tax, markups and markdowns, gratuities and commissions, fees, percent increase and decrease, and percent error.

4. Apply and extend previous understandings of addition and subtraction to add and subtract rational numbers; represent addition and subtraction on a horizontal or vertical number line diagram.

5. Use variables to represent quantities in a real-world or mathematical problem, and construct simple equations and inequalities to solve problems by reasoning about the quantities.

6. Solve problems involving scale drawings of geometric figures, such as computing actual lengths and areas from a scale drawing and reproducing a scale drawing at a different scale.

7. Draw (freehand, with ruler and protractor, or with technology)geometric shapes with given conditions. (Focus is on triangles from three measures of angles or sides, noticing when the conditions determine one and only one triangle, more than one triangle, or no triangle.)

8. Describe the two-dimensional figures that result from slicing three dimensional figures, as in plane sections of right rectangular prisms and right rectangular pyramids.


9. Solve real-world and mathematical problems involving area, volume,and surface area of two- and three-dimensional objects composed oftriangles, quadrilaterals, polygons, cubes, and right prisms. (Pyramids limitedto surface area only.)

10.

 

[Edward]

Would this one work? I drove 150 kph on the autobahn last week. At that speed how long would it take me to drive the 284 miles from Dallas to Monroe.

Sales tax in Shreveport is 9.05% percent. Sales Tax in Marshall TX is 8.25%. It's 90 miles round trip further to the store and your car gets 30 miles to the gallon. If gasoline costs $3 a gallon, and what you wanted to buy cost the same thing in both stores, how expensive would something have to be to make it worth the drive?

 

[arapahoepark]

I could help brain storm.
I used this the last week of school: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com...w-3764344?st=c7c13176592fb47d4a70674dd8e2128e
Kids really got into it

Teachers pay teachers generally has good things for end of year and I tailor them to make them my own.

 

[arapahoepark]

If dealing particularly with proportions, I would suggest something in the realm of finance or businesses and profit.

One idea could be creating your own restaurant. They design the building using shapes.
They design a menu from pre selected recipes. These recipes would say something like : serves two, four, etc. From there they could divide or use proportions to arrive at the answer for one.

Next they could budget and give that they have to say a 10-15% profit margin as a restaurant.

Btw, I have an activity that was very similar on a lemonade stand. Let me see if I can find it elsewhere so I don't have it at home.

 

[ZackF]

Paging @Logan, who checks the accuracy of authors’ claims about their fictional spaceships moving at relativistic speeds.

 

[arapahoepark]

Rockets built from 2L bottles could be another....Last year all 8th grade math did it. The volume was found and designs were submitted to built their own. Perhaps they could find the volume and then using proportions extrapolate for a real rocket.
Our classes actually launched them and found the angles. Then basically we used a trig table to find the proximate height.

Here's PBL ideas. https://my.pblworks.org/projects?f[0]=grade_level:580
This one looks good but according to your standards it sounds more 6-7 math. Perhaps the gaps can be filled in.

 

[ZackF]

My own opinion would be to illustrate proportionality.

I’ve spent a good deal of my carreer in call centers. Some people cannot grasp the concept of proportionality. I have had senior leaders want me to write up or address people who had a higher absolute number of problem calls over a person with a much lower volume of calls yet a much higher rate of problems.

 

[RamistThomist]

Thanks. I'm keeping proportionality in mind. There are some good activities with construction and surface area that I might try.

 

[Theoretical]

Kind of a wildcard here, but https://buildyourstax.com/ is based on real market data randomized in the order and shows compounding/personal finance issues.

 

[No Other Name]

Get balsa wood, utility knives, string, wood glue and thin planks. Take the math you teach and give them a lesson in trusses, stress, strain, Young's modulus, etc.

Run a competition between teams using three points of criteria: cost of bridges (based on amount of supplies used) vs. weight supported (before the wood cracks or snaps) and if any two teams are tied (rare but possible), then the bridge with least initial mass wins.

Cool Powerpoint for idea starters for them as they look to build bridges:

Bridge and Civil Presentation for High Schoolers - KYTC​

Visit
BRIDGES. by: Tom Wright, P.E.. and Jennifer Hall, P.E.. Engineers are problem solvers.

EDIT: My theory of education is present higher than grade-level and re-tool to the students in front of you as needed. They will notice and feel both respected and challenged.

Hope this helps you, brother.

 

[JD]

6. Solve problems involving scale drawings of geometric figures, such as computing actual lengths and areas from a scale drawing and reproducing a scale drawing at a different scale.

8. Describe the two-dimensional figures that result from slicing three dimensional figures, as in plane sections of right rectangular prisms and right rectangular pyramids.

I had students draw scaled floorplans of our Math building this year. They worked in small groups to measure all of the walls and windows, etc and sketch out a plan on poster sized graph paper. It took them several hours over the course of a week. They had a blast.

 

[JD]

Here's a pretty involved personal finance project I have which is geared towards 8th graders. Discounts, markups, taxes, tips, interest, and balancing accounts

 

[No Other Name]

I had students draw scaled floorplans of our Math building this year. They worked in small groups to measure all of the walls and windows, etc and sketch out a plan on poster sized graph paper. It took them several hours over the course of a week. They had a blast.

Similar success in my Intro to Engineering classes. They looked at me with extreme suspicion at first but they really got into it and loved working as precisely as they could.

 

[JD]

Here's a "room design" project I have for Composite Area & Perimeter

 

[JD]

9. Solve real-world and mathematical problems involving area, volume,and surface area of two- and three-dimensional objects composed oftriangles, quadrilaterals, polygons, cubes, and right prisms. (Pyramids limitedto surface area only.)

I have a really fun team-based competetive game that I created in Google Sheets for this topic (inspired by that Reddit "place" thing if anyone remembers that).

The game is more focused on learning to use the formulas than it is about real-world exploration, but in my experience middle schoolers love it. They form alliances with other teams and then betray each other - it's hilarious.

I'm happy to share all of the resources with you if you are interested, but it will take a little bit of explaining on my part for you to use it. You'll need an interactive white-board, ideally one that allows multi-touch.

Here is the link to my TPT page where the game board is posted to give you an idea of what it looks like. Here is a link to my Google Drive where the game cards, etc are.

 

[JD]

7. Draw (freehand, with ruler and protractor, or with technology)geometric shapes with given conditions. (Focus is on triangles from three measures of angles or sides, noticing when the conditions determine one and only one triangle, more than one triangle, or no triangle.)

Attached is the discovery activity I always use for Pythagorean Theorem. Doesn't take more than 25 minutes.

If they know it already then this probably won't do much for them, but it helps them visualize what the formula means geometrically.

The act of indivudally placing and counting the squares really helps the lower students internalize the concept.