It's Alive! And Kicking!

Math the Way It Ought to Be - Tough, Fun, and a Little Weird! (Grades 4-8)

Asa Kleiman, David Washington, Mary Ford Washington

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• eBook ISBN: 9781000493863
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Teaching Mathematics

The authors, junior high students and best friends David and Asa, along with best-selling author Marya Washington Tyler, took the kind of gooey, slimy, disgusting science facts that students love and turned them into hilarious math problems.

Your students will enjoy trying to determine what percent of the refrigerators in the U.S. contain moldy food.

When's the last time you had your students figure the weight of cow manure produced in the U.S.?

How many 8-ounce coffee mugs will an average person's sweat fill?

What is the number of saliva droplets expelled in one class period?

Your students won't mind math when they get to figure the cost of a meal at the Aftermath Restaurant, with foods like Deep Fried Lint, Pseudo-Chicken Parts, Wax Fruit Bowl, and Hot Sludge Sundae. Even the answer key is hilarious.

These and other intriguing problems await your students in this book designed to teach children to translate statements and questions into mathematical equations. All the problems are based on known scientific facts. For even more exciting and strange math problems, see the original It's Alive!

Grades 4-8

Using Really Big Numbers

Big numbers are easy when you remember three things:

• each group of three numbers is called a period;
• each period has a ones place, a tens place, and hundreds place;
• reading from left to right, you say the name of the group at the comma.

Number of commas	Name
1	thousand
2	million
3	billion
4	trillion
5	quadrillion
6	quintillion
7	sextillion
8	septillion
9	octillion
10	nonillion
11	decillion
12	undecillion
13	duodecillion
14	tredecillion
15	quattuordecillion
16	quindecillion
17	sexdecillion
18	septendecillion
19	octodecillion
20	novemdecillion
21	vigintillion
33	googol

So…

1,345,768,095,438 is read

1 trillion, 345 billion, 768 million, 95 thousand, 438

No big deal, right?

Locker room

There are two million sweat glands in our bodies.

After the last gym class of 35 people, how many sweat glands entered the locker rooms?

Mucus moves

Mucus moves through our body at the speed of 5 mm per minute.

If you were riding in a tiny mucus-powered bus through your body, how long would it take you to go one meter?

Cellmates

A female rat can give birth about six times a year, and a litter will contain about 10 little baby rats.

Let’s say you were imprisoned in a jail cell with one male rat (which you named Manfred) and one female rat (which you named Matilda).

They had babies, and half the babies born the first year were male and half were female. All the baby rats began to reproduce after their first birthday.

How many rats would you have to keep you company by the end of the second year?

Skin scales 25 cents a pound

A heavy skin shedder sheds 1½ grams of skin a day, or about 1 pound a year.

If skin scales were selling for 25 cents an ounce, how much could someone like David, who is a pretty heavy shedder, make by selling his skin scales every year? (If you find a buyer please let us know.)

Swatting ordeal

During one summer alone a single pair of houseflies, under ideal conditions, can produce as many as 335,923,200,000,000 offspring.

A single pair of houseflies is buzzing around unnoticed, reproducing under ideal conditions.

If it takes Asa 12 swats to kill one fly, how many swats will he need to make to get rid of all the flies produced in one summer?

Mailbox war

David’s sister is getting her driver’s license.

If she hits a mailbox every 2 hours and 15 minutes, what will her grand total be after 18 hours of driving practice?

Asa’s airplane

Asa has 4 planes hanging from his ceiling. The tacks holding them up are 1 cm long. Each tack is pushed in tightly, however the tacks are beginning to slide at the rate of 1.5 mm per day.

How long until the planes begin their final flight?

Did I tell you my birthday?

If David mentions his birthday every day throughout the month of July — once on July 1st, three times on July 2nd, five times on July 3rd, and so on for the entire month — how many times will he mention his birthday on July 30th?

(By the way, his birthday is on July 31st. David says cards and letters may be sent to him at the address printed in the front of the book. Presents will also be accepted. Contact him for gift ideas f...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Locker room
• Answer Key
• Acknowledgements
• Sources
• About the Authors
• Common Core State Standards Alignment