Updated October 2014
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Mathalicious: Grade 8

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Math meets the real world through movies, pizza, and car engines

Subjects & skills
Subjects
  • Math
Skills
  • Critical Thinking
Grades This grade range is a recommendation by Common Sense Education and not the developer/publisher.
6–10
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Price:  $320 annual subscription per teacher Sliding scale: $10, $15, or $20 per month -- pay what you can.
Platforms:  Website

Take a look inside

4 images
Lesson previews include images, a brief description, and standard correlation.
Video-clip introductions, like this one to “Reel Deal," are sure to grab attention.
Use real-world contexts (solar panels) to connect across curricular areas; ideal for middle school teaching teams.

How Can I Teach with This Tool?

The Grade 8 offering from Mathalicious hosts 18 dynamic math lessons (though a few overlap with other grade levels). Every one of these fantastic lessons includes a detailed lesson guide, clear student handout, and coordinating online interactives that are ideal for whole-class instruction. Giving math this kind of real-world context increases student buy-in while also offering some cross-curricular connections. So, when one of your science teammates tackles energy sources, use “Here Comes the Sun” to perform linear equations in the setting of solar panels.

Practice the Pythagorean theorem in small groups by matching kids -- based on interest -- to lessons on stealing bases, speed traps, or TV size. When they finish, have kids do a jigsaw activity to guarantee they can explain the concepts. Continue the high-interest connections with “Reel Deal” (introduced with a Hunger Games preview) to explore linear and nonlinear patterns in data. Move on to equations with “Flick,” while also winning over savvy, sarcastic kids with its intro clip from The Onion.

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Standards:

Key Standards Supported

Building Functions

  • HSF.BF.1

    Write a function that describes a relationship between two quantities.

  • HSF.BF.4

    Find inverse functions.

Expressions And Equations

  • 8.EE.7

    Solve linear equations in one variable.

  • 8.EE.8

    Analyze and solve pairs of simultaneous linear equations.

  • 8.EE.5

    Graph proportional relationships, interpreting the unit rate as the slope of the graph. Compare two different proportional relationships represented in different ways. For example, compare a distance-time graph to a distance-time equation to determine which of two moving objects has greater speed.

  • 8.EE.4

    Perform operations with numbers expressed in scientific notation, including problems where both decimal and scientific notation are used. Use scientific notation and choose units of appropriate size for measurements of very large or very small quantities (e.g., use millimeters per year for seafloor spreading). Interpret scientific notation that has been generated by technology.

Functions

  • 8.F.1

    Understand that a function is a rule that assigns to each input exactly one output. The graph of a function is the set of ordered pairs consisting of an input and the corresponding output.1

  • 8.F.2

    Compare properties of two functions each represented in a different way (algebraically, graphically, numerically in tables, or by verbal descriptions). For example, given a linear function represented by a table of values and a linear function represented by an algebraic expression, determine which function has the greater rate of change.

  • 8.F.3

    Interpret the equation y = mx + b as defining a linear function, whose graph is a straight line; give examples of functions that are not linear. For example, the function A = s2 giving the area of a square as a function of its side length is not linear because its graph contains the points (1,1), (2,4) and (3,9), which are not on a straight line.

  • 8.F.4

    Construct a function to model a linear relationship between two quantities. Determine the rate of change and initial value of the function from a description of a relationship or from two (x, y) values, including reading these from a table or from a graph. Interpret the rate of change and initial value of a linear function in terms of the situation it models, and in terms of its graph or a table of values.

  • 8.F.5

    Describe qualitatively the functional relationship between two quantities by analyzing a graph (e.g., where the function is increasing or decreasing, linear or nonlinear). Sketch a graph that exhibits the qualitative features of a function that has been described verbally.

Geometric Measurement And Dimension

  • HSG.GMD.3

    Use volume formulas for cylinders, pyramids, cones, and spheres to solve problems.

Geometry

  • 7.G.2

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

  • 8.G.7

    Apply the Pythagorean Theorem to determine unknown side lengths in right triangles in real-world and mathematical problems in two and three dimensions.

  • 8.G.1

    Verify experimentally the properties of rotations, reflections, and translations:

Interpreting Functions

  • HSF.IF.1

    Understand that a function from one set (called the domain) to another set (called the range) assigns to each element of the domain exactly one element of the range. If f is a function and x is an element of its domain, then f(x) denotes the output of f corresponding to the input x. The graph of f is the graph of the equation y = f(x).

  • HSF.IF.2

    Use function notation, evaluate functions for inputs in their domains, and interpret statements that use function notation in terms of a context.

Modeling With Geometry

  • HSG.MG.1

    Use geometric shapes, their measures, and their properties to describe objects (e.g., modeling a tree trunk or a human torso as a cylinder).

Ratios And Proportional Relationships

  • 6.RP.3

    Use ratio and rate reasoning to solve real-world and mathematical problems, e.g., by reasoning about tables of equivalent ratios, tape diagrams, double number line diagrams, or equations.

  • 7.RP.3

    Use proportional relationships to solve multistep ratio and percent problems. Examples: simple interest, tax, markups and markdowns, gratuities and commissions, fees, percent increase and decrease, percent error.

Similarity, Right Triangles, And Trigonometry

  • HSG.SRT.8

    Use trigonometric ratios and the Pythagorean Theorem to solve right triangles in applied problems.

Statistics And Probability

  • 8.SP.1

    Construct and interpret scatter plots for bivariate measurement data to investigate patterns of association between two quantities. Describe patterns such as clustering, outliers, positive or negative association, linear association, and nonlinear association.

  • 8.SP.2

    Know that straight lines are widely used to model relationships between two quantitative variables. For scatter plots that suggest a linear association, informally fit a straight line, and informally assess the model fit by judging the closeness of the data points to the line.

  • 8.SP.3

    Use the equation of a linear model to solve problems in the context of bivariate measurement data, interpreting the slope and intercept. For example, in a linear model for a biology experiment, interpret a slope of 1.5 cm/hr as meaning that an additional hour of sunlight each day is associated with an additional 1.5 cm in mature plant height.

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