Bits and Pieces

Don Slater just forwarded this link: http://nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/category_g_4_t_5.html
It is user-friendly and helpful for individual investigations.

Have your kids gone to the Numb3rs website yet? They can register to win a trip to Hollywood AND if they attempt two math problems they can get an extra entry. Contest runs through 3/15/06.

VCR alert: Numb3rs this week is a new episode, but Monk is on at the same time with an episode featuring the F-22, the fighter made at Lockheed in Marietta.

Matched-pairs investigation with cross-curricular connection: Fox News reports that 1 in 5 Americans can name the five members of TV's Simpson family (Marge, Homer, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie, not OJ, Jessica, Ashlee, Joe, etc.), but only 1 in 1000 can name the five freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment (speech, press, establishment of religion, peaceable assembly, and petition the gov't for redress of grievances). I made up little slips (1/6 of a sheet) with the two prompts and five lines each and gave students 90 seconds to complete it. Although the data do not come from a random sample, they are interesting and easy for students to evaluate.