Education World: Connecting to Math in Real Life

Education World: Connecting to Math in Real Life

Connecting to Math in Real Life

By Wendy Petti



Who needs math games when a world of meaningful real-life fun is
beckoning? It's easy and rewarding to connect to the real world in math
class. On the Information Highway," we can find online collections of
real-world math activities, math activities with a specific real-life
focus (including natural disasters), online data sources, portals for
joining or launching collaborative math and science projects, and more.
The real-world resources assembled here are sure to excite teachers and
students alike.

Collections of Real-World Math Activities

The math activity sites listed here are repositories of lesson ideas that can be explored offline without the use of computers.



Practical Uses of Math and Science (PUMAS)

This site offers 71 examples of real-life applications of math for upper
elementary grades and above, including drawing/interpreting
topographical maps, money math, creating math magic problems, measuring
the heat of sand and rock; and much more. The collection can be sorted
by grade range, key word, or title.



Math in Daily Life

This collection of lessons, geared for high school but adaptable to
younger students, presents realistic applications of math skills and
concepts, including managing credit cards, determining the economics of
buying vs. leasing a car, accruing simple or compound interest in saving
accounts, communicating data visually, calculating rectangular and
rounded areas to determine the quantity of materials needed for home
decorating improvements, and applying ratios, proportions, and
measurement conversions in working with recipes.



Mixing in Math

This set of free activities helps teachers, parents, and after-school
programs mix a bit of math into students' daily routines. An activity
chart lists the math skills tapped by each activity.



Real World Applications of Arithmetic

This downloadable collection of 20 real-world math projects is adaptable for upper elementary- and middle-school students.



Money Math: Lessons for Life

This free four-lesson collection of real-life examples from the world of
finance includes a teacher's guide with lesson plans, activity pages,
and teaching tips.



National Math Trail

Students from around the United States created real-life word problems
related to their communities. That three-year project is no longer
active, but the archived questions remain a great source of real-life
math problems.

Online Math Activities with a Specific Focus

You'll want to be connected to the Internet to explore the math
activities below with students; the activities can be adapted for
whole-class, small group, or individual investigations.



Real World Math

This site provides ideas and lessons for integrating Google Earth into
the math curriculum; each activity description is accompanied by a
related downloadable Google Earth file. Students can estimate great or
small distances and then check actual distances using the Google Earth
ruler. They can determine the area of such complex polygons as
oddly-shaped crop fields. They can learn about network theory and
generalize rules while drawing lines to connect islands. They can learn
about spherical geometry while measuring the angles of triangles
constructed on a global scale. They can explore mazes and labyrinths
utilizing real-life Google Earth images. They can apply formulas for the
volume of solids while viewing and panning around the Great Pyramids
and other 3D buildings. They can express large numbers in scientific
notation as they "climb" Mt. Everest. They can learn about proportion as
they use exchange rates to find currency amounts while crisscrossing
the globe.



FEMA Disaster Master

FEMA presents a wealth of kid-friendly materials on each type of natural
disaster. The disaster area relays information and statistics on each
type of disaster in simple terms.



NOAA Weather Education

The educational resources in this area of the National Weather Service
include statistical data and summaries of severe weather by year.



Math-kitecture

Students apply math skills and concepts through online and offline
architectural design activities, including "Floor Plan Your Classroom."



Plane Math

Interactive lessons and an online airplane design center integrate math and science.




Music Through the Curriculum

Mix math and music to play with rhythms and notes, bringing fractions to life.

Math Collaboration

Math takes on new meaning when students can collaborate with other students and professionals from around the world.



CIESE Collaborative Projects

Join projects involving global data collection and analysis at the Center for Innovation in Engineering and Science Education.



Math Forum Collaborative Projects

The Math Forum lists a variety of collaborative data collection projects.



National Association of Math Circles

This site helps bring together mathematics professionals and students in
an informal setting to work on interesting problems or topics, with the
goal of exciting students about mathematics.

More Real-World Math Ideas at Education World

Check out the Education World features below linking to online data sources or other real world math sites.



Tracking Fall's Falling Temperatures

Students graph and analyze temperature changes over time using data they've collected and optional web-based weather resources.



What Did It Cost 100 Years Ago?

Students compare changing prices across a century using online data sources.




Updated 11/18/2016