Join students Sophie, Tomás, Emma, and Marcus during Fifth Period! This STEM comic strip chronicles the exciting and often hilarious adventures of a close-knit group of four friends as they learn about science, technology, engineering, and math from their kooky, inspiring, off-the-wall science teacher, Mr. Kepler. When they're not in class, these kids love to explore the vast world of STEM on their own, launching weather balloons, programming computer games, and cataloging insects, sometimes with unpredictable and highly entertaining results!
Check back on the first and third Friday of every month for a new Fifth Period strip!
A Real Mathlete
Sometimes we’re so good at something we hardly realize we use it so often. Marcus thinks he doesn’t have time for a little math homework, but he’s just spent a whole afternoon analyzing the geometry of soccer formations! Maybe you don’t painstakingly map out soccer positions to figure out the best formation to use because it covers the most area or whatever, BUT you probably are constantly doing little equations in your head!
Think about it!
What if your mom or dad asks you to go the grocery store to get something, and the store closes in 30 minutes. You know that the store is 2 miles away and that you can ride your bike about 9–10 miles per hour, so you probably know whether you can make it there in time!
Or, maybe you’re making a cake that needs 4 cups of flour, but you only have 3 cups on hand. Since you only have three-quarters of the flour, you can figure out what three-quarters of the rest of the ingredients are and scale down the recipe…or you could just ride your bike to the store that’s only 2 miles away like your mom or dad asked you to!
What are some ways you use math without really noticing?