When students use their math skills to understand and analyze current events, they find the math means more and it's relevant. In addition, research indicates that students who study news and current events in school, tend to do better on standardized tests while improving in a variety of subjects and have higher reading levels and a better vocabulary.
A simple search on the internet will lead you to so many different sites with math news that can be utilized in class. Or check your newsfeed for articles with graphs and data such as the latest data on Covid, or international countries that are open, or oil spills. One can also read the local newspaper for sales, discounts, tax increases, and so much more. It's just a matter of looking around.
Most news articles are set to be read by someone who is at a sixth grade level which means most high school students should be able to read the articles. One way to use the article is to have students create a verbal summary of it via Flip grid or any other video program. Another way is to create a page with a place for students to create a written summery and several math related questions on the rest of the page. Students can do either individually or in small groups.
Another way of using the news is to teach students identify The Who, What, Where, When, and Why of the story before answering the following questions. Can they identify where the math is in the article? How is the math used to help people understand the news? Finally, what questions or thoughts do students have about the math or story?
Now if you want to take this a step farther, ask students if it is possible to make prediction based on the math contained in the story? Are there any other positions or points of view that can be supported by the math or data in the story? Can the students connect the news to anything else they've learned?
Furthermore, when you are teaching a new topic like piecewise functions, or box and whisker plots, look for authentic data. Authentic data might include having students measure the length of their feet and their height before creating a scatter plot of the data and creating a line of best fit for the data. An activity like this gets students fully involved.
Try having students find ads on certain things in the newspaper so they can compare and contrast certain items such as tablets, pens, clothing, etc. Or they can compare the raw data from the ads to the graphical representation to determine is the information in the ad is accurate or slanted. Do a quick search for information on population growth or decline for your town, city, or state to see how it has changed over the past few years and then have students make a prediction on what will happen to the population in 10 or 20 years.
The same type of predictions could be applied to world records at the Olympics especially since this year the Olympics are being held over the summer, or weather patterns. Weather patterns are good because much of the west has been experiencing a significant drought for the past 20 years. Students could make predictions on the water level in Lake Mead and other lakes whose levels have dropped significantly. They could predict when the water levels drop to being totally unusable.
Anytime there is an election, especially one for the president, have students look at the maps showing which states went republican and which went democratic so they can see how the states voted. They should then compare these results with a map showing population densities and the distribution of electoral votes so students can see that having the most number of states does not mean you will win the presidency. It depends on which states you get.
Lots of real math in the newspapers. Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear. Have a great day.
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