In this task students investigate the rules of a math game involving dice with different numbered faces. From the patterns that students identify, they will be asked to generalize them in the form of rules that can then be used to suggest a strategy to win the game. For that reason, this assessment is a real-life problem that uses an investigation of patterns as a problem solving-strategy. Note that this can be a very long assessment and it is advised to break it up into multiple parts over several days. For example, having students do Part 1 on one day and Part 2 on another.

Wildlife at the fictitious Nikita Lake is dying due to an invasive algae species. In this investigation students will have to determine which chemical can remove the algae the quickest. Each chemical is modeled by a given formulae that students will have to plug values for time into to see how much algae will be removed. Students will then have to argue based on the data they calculate, which chemical is the best. This task is one of the simpler and more straightforward ones on the EdVaults website.

In this assessment, students investigate palindromes and, after setting up initial conditions, working with one-step, two-step, and multi-step palindromes. Throughout the task, students will use colors to recognize patterns on the 0-99 number square. By the end of the task, students will have worked through all one- and two-digit numbers to determine whether they are palindromes, one-step palindromes, two-step palindromes, or the numbers require multiple steps to get to a palindrome.

In this assessment students are asked to find the length of a hypothetical zip line from one building to another in the school. In order to do this, they need to create a clinometer out of a protractor, which can be used to measure the angle between eye level and the top of a building. Those measurements can then be used to find the height of the building through the use of trigonometric ratios. This assessment only works in the specific place-based context where there are two buildings (with one being relatively taller than the other) available and in relatively close proximity to each other. Using a clinometer and measuring tape/trundle wheels, students will be able to make the needed measurements of the building heights and the distance between them. Students need to be taught how to create and use a clinometer ahead of time.

In this assessment, students are asked to find the cost of cleaning a building that is shaped like a right-angled trapezoid prism. To do this they will need to find the total surface area of the building. The given measurements require students to use trigonometric ratios and Pythagoras’s theorem to find the missing dimensions of the building. Students will have to show their work in a form of a report that also explains the accuracy of their calculations and whether they make sense in the context of the problem.