Juxtaposing the architecture of Ellis island with that of the proposed Trump Wall creates many opportunities for mathematical analysis and frames a discussion of how our nation’s attitude toward immigration has changed
Tag Archives: mathematics


Creating an Immigrant Scorecard – Creating a Formula
In this lesson, students will consider and propose various factors that can be used to make decisions regarding prospective immigrants to the United States of America. Students will conduct public opinion research to determine which factors should be used, and Read more

Trig River
Students learn about and use a right triangle to determine the width of a “pretend” river. Working in teams, they estimate of the width of the river, measure it and compare their results with classmates.

Linear Functions
In this tutorial, “Linear functions of the form f(x) = a x + b and the properties of their graphs are explored interactively using an applet.” The applet allows students to manipulate variables to discover the changes in intercepts and Read more

Do you Measure Up? Area and Perimeter
This lesson is the first in a series of four lessons which will help build an understanding of area and perimeter by using real world applications in order to build a skateboard park.

Ratios
This set of instructional materials and problems helps students understand ratios and proportions, starting with a simple review and progressing into the more advanced territory of similar triangles

A Geometric Proof of the Pythagorean Theorem
Students will see an animated presentation of the proof of the Pythagorean Theorem. This animated PowerPoint presentation uses shearing and the invariance of the area of triangles with congruent bases and heights to show a step-by-step geometric proof of the Read more

Solving Linear Inequalities: Introduction and Formatting
From Elizabeth Stapel at Purplemath, this module helps students understand how to solve linear inequalities with an introduction to the topic using both inequality notation and a graphic representation to express the inequality.

What Does It Mean To Measure?
In this session, students will begin to explore the questions “What can be measured?” and “What does it mean to measure something?” Students identify measurable properties of objects such as weight, surface area, and volume, and discuss which metric units Read more

Measure It! Paperclips
These 20 images give students practice measuring the height and width of various pictures with paperclips. Ready to print, each sheet contains a spot for students to write in their measurement of the pencil, ice cream treat, insect, car, and Read more