Math-Sci-Guy

This activity guides students in studying how spherical the earth is. I would use this after students have already learned the term "oblate sphereoid," so that you can then use this to discuss with them How oblate is it? Students will do some simple calculations (basic ratios) to discover the relief that the highest and lowest elevations on Earth would have if the earth were shrunk down to the size of a (32cm diameter) classroom globe.

This laboratory activity about Earthquake Depths is a great math-science crossover! It gives students practice with latitude & longitude and helps them process the fact that earthquakes don't just happen at Earth's surface but at varying depths. Specific skills practiced are plotting latitude & longitude coordinates on a map, plotting longitude vs depth on a graph, and visualizing the same data from multiple perspectives. This is real earthquake data from actual earthquakes in South America.

In this laboratory activity, students will use a loop of string and two tacks to draw one circle and four different ellipses. They will then measure the focal distance and major axis of each of these, and use this data to calculate the eccentricity of each ellipse (and the circle). The analysis questions lead students to discover the overall patterns and apply the knowledge learned in this activity to planetary orbits. Note: Parts of the lab refer to the ESRT. This is New York State's Earth

This printout gives students an opportunity to explore a (possibly) real-life situation, empirically determine the minimum number of moves required to accomplish the task, then gather the data and find a pattern to describe it. The activity is completely printable (which also gives students the opportunity to do something with their hands (cutting) and lets them practice fine motor coordination, though if you want to spice it up students could cut discs out of corrugated cardboard (