Pop Culture Math

There are 4 probability activities included. The first uses a clip from The Simpsons to motivate a lesson on finding the odds of winning the NY lottery. The next one uses the game show Deal or No Deal to introduce expected value. The next one uses the game show Let's Make a Deal to discuss The Monty Hall Problem. The last activity uses the big wheel from The Price is Right to calculate probabilities of winning. All activities include a student handout and a link to a short video overview. So

In this activity students find the theoretical probabilities of winning a coin toss and a round of Rock, Paper, Scissors. They are given articles to read that discuss strategies for winning these games and then asked to devise their own strategy. Cooperative learning is used. A homework assignment is included along with a follow-up the following class where students compare the theoretical probabilities they found with the experimental probabilities. Video clips from The Simpsons, Seinfeld, and

This activity uses Wheel of Fortune as a way to practice hypothesis testing. Students should already know how to do a Chi-Square Goodness of fit test prior to this activity and they should have some familiarity with Excel (or you can use this activity as a way to introduce them to it). Because Excel is used you will need computers. First students find the probability of going bankrupt. Then they learn about letter distributions. First they compare the letter distribution in books to the diction

In this activity students calculate a Sabermetric baseball statistic and then analyze it to look for patterns. A computer lab is required for this activity since it uses Excel and online baseball statistics. The motivation for this activity is the movie Moneyball.

In this activity students figure out the formulas for compound interest compounded once a year, multiple times, and continuously. A clip from the movie The Bank is used to introduce the idea and a clip from Futurama is used to give a practice problem.

A clip from The Big Bang Theory is used to motivate students to study properties of palindrome numbers.

In this activity a clip from Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium is used to introduce students to the Fibonacci numbers. Students explore properties of this sequence and then go into depth on the property of dividing a Fibonacci number by the previous one. Limits are discussed but could be discussed informally without knowing the precise definition of limit. A link to a video going over the activity is included as well the solutions.

This activity guides students through a discovery of u-substitution using a clip from The Simpsons as a way to motivate interest.

In this activity the movie Identity is used to motivate an exploration of the birthday problem. This activity can be used is a middle school and higher class as a first day activity for students to get to know one another. An extension for high school classes is included where students are guided through calculating probabilities. For this part they should know basic probability rules (and, or, not), permutations, and factorials. There is an extra credit option as well for including leap years.

In this activity the movie Dumbo is used as a motivator to have students create a model. Students will draw a graph and then figure out the equation of their graph. Depending on the shape they choose, the activity is set up for the graph to be either piecewise with two linear equations or a parabola.

In this activity students learn how to convert between hexadecimal and decimal notation and then use this knowledge applied to HTML colors. This activity is motivated by a scene in The Simpsons.

In this activity students first go through a set of examples exploring the definitions of functions, one-to-one, and onto (they will have to have previously learned the definitions). Then they view a clip from Top Chef to motivate the Pigeonhole Principle and go through some examples.

In this activity a clip from Rushmore is used to motivate finding the area of an ellipse. In the first part students use the relationship between a circle and an ellipse to make an educated guess about what the area of an ellipse is. In a Calculus class this can be extended to using integration and information from the clip to calculate the area of an ellipse. For this part students need to know trig sub. A link to a short video going over this activity is included as well as the solutions.

In this activity students create a model for Alice from Alice in Wonderland as she grows and shrinks. Students should know how to solve exponential equations.

In this activity a clip from The Big Bang Theory is used to introduce students to geometric sequences. They then explore the common ratio value. A link to a video overview is included as well as solutions.

In this activity students explore an incorrect statement about isosceles triangles that the scarecrow from The Wizard of Oz makes. Then students explore right triangles with a related clip from The Simpsons.

In this activity an episode of Shark Tank is used as a motivation to explore linear and exponential growth. If you would like to take this a step further there is also an extension that uses linear programming. A link to a video going over this activity is included.

In this activity students are guided through a discovery of the standard deviation formula and then they explore how variations in the data affect its value. A clip from Everybody Loves Raymond is used to show an example of standard deviation.

In this activity students learn about two basic level ciphers for encoding and decoding secret messages. A clip from the DaVinci Code is used to introduce this topic. Included is a link to a short video going over how the activity works.

In this activity students watch a clip from Futurama and work with a formula given by The Professor. The first part uses series and modeling. The second part uses exponential growth. Students should be familiar with the harmonic series and the geometric series and what it converges to.