Presents an activity in which the subject is the identity of the team in the greatest jeopardy of becoming the big loser in a basketball tournament. Explores several facts about the big loser, offering them in a hierarchy appropriate for creating various short- and long-term projects for a high school mathematics class. (ASK)

Offers a real problem for students with younger siblings that uses a board game and illustrates the use of modeling and simulation. (ASK)

Presents a hands-on modeling experiment that focuses on hyperbolic functions, asymptotes, data analysis, applied statistics, and optimization problems. (ASK)

Presents an activity that utilizes the mathematical models of forest fires and oil spills that were generated (in the first part of this activity, published in the November 1998 issue) by students using probability and cellular automata. (ASK)

Provides a brief synopsis of the development of the National Fire Danger Rating System along with an explanation of how it works and possible ways to use it in a modeling or problem-solving unit in a secondary mathematics classroom. (ASK)

Presents an activity on linear functions that is designed to help students become familiar with the graphs, equations, and tables of these functions while focusing on issues related to cost, revenue, and profit. (ASK)

This collection of activities is intended to enhance the teaching of college algebra through the use of modeling. The problems use real data and involve the representation and interpretation of the data. The concepts addressed include rates of change, linear and quadratic regression, and functions. The collection consists of eight problems, four…

Illustrates the addition, subtraction, and representation of fractions using an area model and a measurement model. Also demonstrates multiplication and division of fractions by employing the area model. (ASK)

Presents an algebra project in which students build a dance club. Reveals how this project motivates students and makes algebra more accessible, dynamic, and relevant to their society. (ASK)

Describes an investigation that leads to one of the significant contributions that sabermetrics--new approaches to gaining information about baseball from its numerical records--has made to our understanding of baseball. (ASK)

Presents examples of students' work when they are engaged in problem solving and reasoning tasks as they determine how to fill bottles with water to create musical notes by blowing across the tops of the bottles, and as they create mathematical models that represent these notes. (ASK)

Describes how a mathematical model can be constructed and used to better understand human impact on natural resources. Uses the source of many current discussions in northern Idaho to present algebraic concepts and show an application of exponential functions. Contains 13 references. (ASK)

Highlights an activity that focuses on learning the geometric concepts needed for students to design blueprints for a city park by mastering fifth-grade geometry concepts and applying their knowledge in a real-world context. (ASK)