Mathematics — Grade 8

ACC basketball

The students will use ACC basketball statistics to practice the process of converting fractions to decimals then to percents and will learn how to create and edit a spreadsheet. They will then use this spreadsheet to analyze their data. This unit is done during the basketball season.

Format: lesson plan (grade 6–8 Computer Technology Skills and Mathematics)

By Susan Dougherty.

Good medicine

Students will examine changes in technology, medicine, and health that took place in North Carolina between 1870 and 1930 and construct products and ideas which demonstrate understanding of how these changes impacted people living in North Carolina at that time. To achieve these goals, students will employ the eight intelligences of Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligences Theory.

Format: lesson plan (grade 8 English Language Arts, Social Studies, Mathematics, and Science)

By Leslie Ramsey.

Homerun Hoopla

This lesson is designed for students to gather and analyze data about baseball figures. The student will use the Internet or other resources to collect statistical data on the top five home run hitters for the current season as well as their career home run totals. The students will graph the data and determine if it is linear or non-linear.

Format: lesson plan (grade 8–12 Mathematics)

By Anne Walters.

Human Box and Whisker Plot

Students will learn how to construct box and whisker plots as they actively participate in being a part of one based upon their heights. As an extension of the lesson, students will learn how to interpret a graph of this type.

Format: lesson plan (grade 7–8 Mathematics)

By Nikki Honeycutt.

Pollution plume

The students will simulate a plume to illustrate point source and non-point source pollution.

Format: lesson plan (grade 8 Computer Technology Skills, Mathematics, and Science)

By Jennifer Smith.

See How They Run! The 100 Meter Dash

Middle level students will collect times as they run the 100 meter dash. These times will be depicted through various graphic representations (bar, circle, histogram). Times will be compared to current world records for the 100 meters. Students will decide which Math class ran fastest and support that choice in short essay form. They will also try to determine the faster gender based on the data collected.

This lesson plan is a unit filled with related lesson plans. One or two parts of this project could be completed as a stand-alone lesson, or the entire set of activities and extensions could be completed for an involved, integrated unit.

Format: lesson plan (grade 6–8 Mathematics)

By Holly Smith.

Statistics Project

Students collect numeric and non-numeric data. They are then expected to use the data collected to construct different types of graphs as well as finding central tendencies.

Format: lesson plan (grade 5–8 Mathematics)

By Audrea Saunders.

Stocks Report

Students will create graphs illustrating changes in stocks and answer questions using the graphs.

Format: lesson plan (grade 6–8 Computer Technology Skills and Mathematics)

By Susan Blackwell.

We all live downstream

This lesson uses the North American Streamside exhibit of the North Carolina Zoological Park as an inquiry-based starting point for a stream ecology study.

Format: lesson plan (grade 8 Information Skills, Computer Technology Skills, Mathematics, and Science)

By Eddie Hamblin.

What Can Scatterplots Tell Us?

Using data from peer surveys and self surveys of popular TV shows, students will create computer-generated scatterplots. Students will culminate a unit on correlation with a Parent vs. Teen scatterplot project.

Format: lesson plan (grade 8 Information Skills, English Language Arts, Computer Technology Skills, and Mathematics)

By Hilda Hamilton.

Zoo integrated unit

The unit uses the North Carolina Zoological Park as a teaching tool rather than as a nice place to visit. It can be used by a single teacher or multiple teachers of different subjects, and it is aimed at 7th and 8th graders.

Format: lesson plan (grade 6–8 Information Skills, English Language Arts, Social Studies, Computer Technology Skills, Mathematics, and Science)

By Craig Smith.

Lesson plans on the web

Aluminum Cans

Students gather and graph information about their use of aluminum cans, and then interpret the data, including finding and displaying the mean. (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 5–8 Mathematics)

Provider: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics

Analyzing numeric and geometric patterns of paper pool: Overview

This page provides an overview of a four-lesson Illuminations unit plan titled “Analyzing Numeric and Geometric Patterns of Paper Pool.” (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 6–8 Mathematics)

Provider: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics

Baseball stats

Students use the Internet to explore datasets and statistics in baseball. (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 6–8 Mathematics)

Provider: American Association for the Advancement of Science

Burning questions

In this lesson, one of a multi-part unit from Illuminations, students use information from a quiz, along with what they learned in the previous four lessons, to write a summary and finalize a property sketch demonstrating their understanding of wildfires. (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 6–8 Mathematics)

Provider: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics

Dealing with data in the elementary school

In this lesson, from Illuminations, students hone their problem-solving skills through the collection and analysis of real data. They use the mean, mode, and median to analyze their data and make graphs to represent their findings. (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 3–8 Mathematics)

Provider: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics

Explore more tables

The interactive paper pool game in this unit provides an opportunity for students to further develop their understanding of ratio, proportion, and least common multiple. (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 6–8 Mathematics)

Provider: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics

Fueling the fires of American industrialization

Students examine the role wood played in the American Industrial Revolution. By calculating how much wood was consumed by U.S. railroads before and after the invention of wood preservatives, students will observe the connection between technology and forest conservation. (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 8 Social Studies, English Language Arts, and Mathematics)

Provider: Forest History Society

Go the distance

The interactive paper pool game in this unit provides an opportunity for students to further develop their understanding of ratio, proportion, and least common multiple. (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 6–8 Mathematics)

Provider: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics

Graphical representations for the number of hits

In this lesson, one of a multi-part unit from Illuminations, students continue their exploration of the Paper Pool game by graphically analyzing data collected during several games played. (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 6–8 Mathematics)

Provider: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics