Buying Basketball Courts

How many could buy for 1 million?

What does a court cost?

What could you buy for a billion? a trillion?

How many times more expensive is the price of a court in one state over an another?

This infographic creates a great platform for discussion around large numbers, rate, ratio, scale and so much more:

Source: http://i.imgur.com/w0WK72P.png

Great Visualization of Citibike Data

Not only does this site capture a tremendous amount of data into a beautiful visual, but it also uses scientific notation. This will find its way into my curriculum next year:

Enceladus Moon: Volume, Rate and Scientific Notation

It turns out that there might be a large volume of water beneath the Surface of Saturn's Enceladus Moon, about equal in volume to Lake Superior and 245 times the volume of Lake Garda in Italy.

I am going to use this next year in conjunction with Scientific Notation. We can analyze what it means to be "about equal" in volume or "245 times the volume" of Lake Garda.

As an extension we will analyze a question that utilizes the context of the scenario. Using different types of models, we can attempt to answer the question: "is it worth it to extract the water?"

Students can start with simple calculations: how long might the water last us? how many bottles would it fill? Then they can progress to bigger questions: based on current technology, how much would it take to get there and extract the water.

Comparing these costs and gains might make for a nice debate (we will also include the typical Neil deGrasse Tyson argument on the connection between space exploration and the future of the economy).


Article Link: http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-26872184

If the Moon were only One Pixel

A student of mine found this site: http://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem.html

This just screams proportional reasoning. I will be using it next year.

How Much Caffeine is in Your Cup?

I am a coffee snob and am always searching for the perfect cup. I don't often worry about the level of caffeine in my cup (I drink so many cups each day that caffeine no longer has much of an impact), but I came across this article and started to think, "there has got to be a lesson in this."

Here is the full story from NPR's marketplace.

Since I am teaching 8th grade, I am thinking something with linear models (time vs caffeine based on coffee choices). I also started to wonder, "what is Deathwish coffee?" And "how can I get some?"

1 pound is currently $19. A bit expensive, but perhaps worth it. I like their home page warning:

Not your typical coffee bean:

Disclaimer:  This is not your regular morning coffee.  This is not your store bought coffee.  You will not find this coffee at your local diner or at your sissy 'Starbucks'. Death Wish Coffee is the most highly caffeinated premium dark roast organic coffee in the world. This is Extreme Coffee, not for the weak. Consider yourself Warned

You can find more here: http://www.deathwishcoffee.com/index.html

I haven't designed the lesson yet, but I am wondering how long it would take to consume a lethal amount of caffeine with this brand.