Mathematical Practice: MP7 - Look for and make use of structure.

Hungry for Change: Food Deserts in CT

Mural Mathematics

Racial Profiling

To investigate situations in the real world, we sometimes create a mathematical model. A mathematical model is a simplified version of the real world that allows us to understand the real world a little better. Over time we can change this model so that it gets closer and closer to the real world. Today we are going to create a mathematical model that represents a police officer pulling over a car randomly to try and gain an understanding of a police officer conducting a traffic stop. Our essential question is “Do police officers disproportionately pull over Black, Hispanic, or minority...

Modeling a Pandemic

Fold & Cut

Balance Beans

Making Connections Between Forms of Quadratic Equations

Developed as part of the Math Circles of Inquiry project, the goal of this module is to help students in Algebra II become fluent in the various forms of a parabola equation based on the information that they are given. Students sometimes fail to understand that there are multiple ways to find an equation of a parabola. This module incorporates multiple activities both in the learning packet and using Desmos activities online to encourage students to discover and practice writing equations of parabolas in their various forms. At the end of this activity students will work more efficiently with equations...

Solving Linear Equations: An M&M Mystery

Liar’s Bingo

From recognizing a pattern to generating terms, to abstracting and making inferences, tasks based on patterns embody the “low-threshold, high-ceiling” trait of good problems. Liar’s Bingo is all about patterns. This session involves recognizing patterns and searching for underlying structure, number theory, numeration, and potentially binary arithmetic. Sometimes, as in the game of Liar’s Bingo, order seems to arise magically from something we first assume to be random or chaotic. In this case, we use the game of Liar’s Bingo to engage participants’ desire to find patterns, and supercharge that desire by demonstrating a magic trick that captivates attention by...

Lockers: An Open-and-Shut Case

A classic Math Circle problem! At a large high school, there are 10000 lockers. The lockers are numbered, in order, 1, 2, 3, . . . , 10000, and to start, each locker is closed. There are also 10000 students, also numbered 1, 2, 3, . . . , 10000. The students walk the length of the corridor, opening and closing lockers according to a set of rules. How many lockers remain open? Which lockers? What if the rules were slightly different? Can you manipulate the rules to obtain specific outcomes? This collection of nine locker problems is suitable for...