The Annenberg Project comes up with some wonderful, practical, and educational exhibits. This one is too good to pass up, since, just as surely as it teaches and reinforces math concepts, so also does it teach valuable life skills to high schoolers. Not only this, but the real magic is that these lessons are never dry. Starting with the premise that math is a universal language and thus affects our communication and decision-making skills, it offers concrete and stimulating examples. The categories cover all facets of life, and almost everyone will find a topic to sustain their interests, from the odds on investing or playing the lottery, to facts and fallacies on banking, to the exponential possibilities in both population growth and compound savings, to even home decorating or cooking.
Activities are available with each topic.
If you cannot incorporate it immediately however, you may want to consider preparing it for use when students return in September, and election time then only two months away. Students will cast their votes on polling, media, and candidates in order to arrive at the Statistics exhibit on polling and elections. Covered are random sampling and error, and can view the results of their votes and the initial polling at the end of the lesson. Scroll down for more math reference resources, from conversion facilitators to math history and more. This is a 10 day unit, with evaluations and follow-up activities included.