Sustainability Counts! Math Awareness Month
Posted on April 16th, 2013 by Mary Lord
Sustainability is the theme of this year’s Mathematics Awareness Month. Teachers will find plenty of activities, contests, and other free educational resources that link math with environmental applications, including the Energy Challenge, which teaches students the mathematics of their school’s energy use and then has them develop and implement an action plan to reduce energy consumption.
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Tags: applications, Class Activities, Energy, Energy and Environmental Technology, Environmental Engineering, Internet Resources, Math, Mathematics, Mathematics Awareness Month, Sustainability Counts, Teacher Resources, Web Resources
In this activity, teams of students in grades 5 to 7 learn about environmental, civil, and sanitation engineering by designing and building model landfills that hold the most garbage, minimize costs, and prevent trash and contaminated “rainwater” from polluting the nearby “city.” Teams test their landfills, and graph and compare designs for capacity, cost, and performance. 
In this activity, students in grades 5 to 12 learn about accuracy, precision, and simple machines by working in teams to design and build a robotic basketball “player” that can nail a free-throw shot three times in a row.
Nominate an outstanding mathematics, science, or computer science teacher for the 2013 Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching (PAEMST). Nominations for teachers in grades 7 to 12 are due April 1.
The USA Mathematical Talent Search is a free mathematics competition open to all U.S. middle and high school students. The first of three rounds of problems was just released, with responses (including written explanations of solutions) due October 22.
No funds for field trips? Take your students on a virtual tour of the best Museums of the World or check out scores of other engaging STEM education sites and teacher resources in the BestEdSites collection.
In this short fun activity, students of all ages learn about rocket stability by constructing and flying small “indoor” paper rockets, then analyzing flight data and interpreting the results.
Albert Einstein is no Caped Crusader. But as a comic book, his theory of relativity can pack as much punch as any superhero–at least in Japan, where students have learned math and science from manga (comic books) for decades. Now, a U.S. publisher has translated a host of these STEM comics, giving English readers access to manga versions of subjects ranging from calculus to biochemisty and yes, relativity.
The Common Core State Standards just took a big step toward becoming classroom practice. Some 44 states and the District of Columbia adopted these new standards in English language arts and mathematics over the past year. Now, STEM teachers are getting the first details of the key content students must master when common assessments roll out in 2014.
