Reality Math

I was checking for sports units to integrate into my math classes when I stumbled across the Reality Math web site located at the University of North Carolina.  This site has units designed for college students to embed in a variety of subjects in a real way.

The units cover the application of math in sports, energy, environmental science, finance, health and misc.   I took a look at the misc group and some of them are cool.  The topics range from exercise and nutritional labels to firearm deaths to voting.  Yes a wide variety of topics but topics that might stop students from asking the question "When will I ever use this?"


It appears each unit has everything you need including some excellent explanations, tables, etc so students do not need to go anywhere else to find extra materials.  In addition, each unit includes links to where the information was obtained.  

I pulled up the unit on credit cards.  The activity starts with information on how having a good credit rating reduces the rate charged for a mortgage.  The reason for starting this way is to show students how you can establish good credit using credit cards.

The unit goes on to explore finance charges, late charges, credit limit and fixed rate limits, student credit card rates, the minimum payment trap and the multiple card trap.  Throughout the unit, students calculate the costs of various scenarios.  In the process, students are exposed to all the facets of owning a credit card.  This is awesome.

Every unit I looked at was complete and detailed.  In addition, I felt like the examples were so much more real and did not have a contrived feel that many units I've run into have.  I can hardly wait to try these units with my students.