Make it Middle School

Problem Solving is the cornerstone of a successful math program. The following 25 problems can be used individually or with groups. A problem solving rubric is included to help assess a student's ability to communicate their understanding and mathematical processes. I have used these problems successfully in my 20 years as a middle school teacher, and I have grouped them according to strand. Enjoy!

This instructional video takes students through the step by step process of building a histogram. Topics that are covered include calculating the range, creating a frequency table based on student determined intervals, and building the histogram. Similar to other lessons in my distance learning math series, GIFs and music are used to make the material a bit more fun and interesting for students.

This lesson and assignment introduce students to the steps needed to purchase a car. Steps include calculating tax, factoring in a down payment, calculating simple interest on a loan, and determining either monthly or biweekly payments. As with other videos in my distance learning math series, GIFs and music are used to make the lesson more engaging for students.

This video attempts to put the fun in math fundamentals. Using the symbols of an angel and devil, the video goes over some of the rules children will need to help determine whether a number is prime or composite.

This video has an excellent review on how to obtain common factors and multiples from larger numbers. With some upbeat music and funny GIF's, students learn how to obtain the GCF and LCM of numbers using prime factorization and a Venn diagram.

This video reviews the mean, median, and mode and how to calculate these averages. Further, this video goes over why each of these types of averages are used based on the question that is given. Reference is made to how an outlier can skew a data set, making the mean not the most reliable way to calculate an overall average. As with other videos in my distance learning series, GIFs and music are used to make the content more engaging for students.

This video is a quick and fun lesson on how to use a tree diagram to represent a larger number as a product of prime factors. The video keeps things light and moving along with a few funny GIF's to help with student attention.

This instructional video introduces students to the order of operations. Three examples of increasing complexity are used to illustrate the correct method for solving these multi step questions. As with my other distance learning videos, GIFs and music are used to help increase student attention and interest.