Real World Math in CTE
Connecting Industry to Instruction
Ready-to-use lessons that engage students by tying math to potential careers, finally answering, "When will I ever use this?"
- Pre-lesson interactive to introduce or review key concepts to set students up for success,
- Launch video to set the stage for real-world problem-solving,
- Student Activity sheet, and
- Teacher Notes and Solutions.
Math Concept: Functions
3D Modeling: Photogrammetry
Students develop an understanding of how a photogrammetric engineer uses measurements from a photograph to create a 3D model of an object on the ground.
Cleaning Water Analysis: Data Analytics
Cream Capacity Increase: Heat Exchange
Students design an additional heat exchanger to add to an existing one at North Carolina State University’s Dairy Plant to enable an increase in production of dairy products. Students will then be asked to finish an Excel template to answer various “what if” questions that could occur on the job.
Crest and Sags: Road Design to Prevent Accidents
Students determine the appropriate placement of a storm drain system and the appropriate design speed on two different stretches of highway involving a sag and a crest curve.
Egress Mobility: Staircase Design
Students measure a staircase in their school building to determine if they are “up to today’s building codes.”
Students then design a staircase for new construction.
Loads of Steel: Design and Estimation
Students use algebra to determine the thickness of steel plates that need to be fabricated in order to ensure construction is structurally sound and economically efficient.
Photogrammetry: Flight Planning for 3D Stereo Imagery
Students design a flight plan and the number of images needed to collect data from a landslide in western North Carolina that wiped out a mile of roadway.
Quality Water Flow: Landscape Architecture
Is a stormwater management system needed? CLH Design specializes in school site development and is contracted to develop stormwater management plans for the construction of South Lakes Elementary School.
Road Drainage: Stormwater Inlet Design
Students determine the number of inlets needed throughout the project site of the proposed four-lane highway to ensure a safe 8-foot spread for the width of discharge.
Steel Consequences: Sequences, Schedules, and Estimates
Students compare, analyze and interpret steel fabrication and erection data in verbal, tabular, graphical and algebraic forms
Sustainability: Improving Waste Economy
Students examine how environmental engineers use matrices and regression modeling to manage the cost of waste disposal at their manufacturing facility. Students will also look at forecasts for future waste production to examine expenditures associated with disposal, as well as impact on environmental certifications.
Threat Assessments: Velocity Calculations
Students determine the placement of an active vehicle barrier on Kirtland Military Base.
Traffic Flow: Traffic Analysis
Students act as civil engineers for SEPI, a division of TranSystems, which plans, designs and oversees construction to enhance transportation networks, and work to determine the level of service on a stretch of highway in Raleigh. Students also will predict future population and the level of service of the roadway based on the predicted population.
Math Concept: Geometry
Breathe Easy: Outside Air Requirements and Heating Load (HVAC)
Building Construction: Roofing, Lighting, and HVAC
Cool Your Chickens: Pulleys, Drives, and Tanks
Exit Strategy: Means of Egress
Students interpret and apply building codes to determine the number of exits needed for a commercial space and the minimum distance between exits. Students will need to convert units, find the area of irregular shapes, apply a formula to determine occupant load and use the Pythagorean theorem.
Keep Up the Pressure: Water Tank Construction
Students work on an engineering project to consider the height of a water storage tank and its relationship to water pressure, the weight of the tank and the capacity of the ground beneath it to support the structure.
Stormwater and Hydraulics
Students use algebra to determine the thickness of steel plates that need to be fabricated in order to ensure construction is structurally sound and economically efficient.
Tree Conservation: Data Sampling
Math Concept: Trigonometry
Building Setbacks: Designing in a Community
Students act as a developer and make sure they are maximizing the number of apartments provided while complying with the city’s municipal code and the protected areas nearby.
Harnessing the Sun: Energy Planning
Students use right triangle trigonometry along with the Law of Sines and Law of Cosines to determine the placement of solar panels on a flat roof that will yield the maximum energy output.
Missing Monument: Surveying Property
Students will locate the fourth corner monument to confirm the property lines surrounding a home so that the homeowners know where to build a fence. Students then determine if there is any overlap between properties that occurred during the creation of the neighborhood.
Moving Dirt: Stockpile Surveying
Students will use geometry to determine the volume of large, irregular-shaped objects.
Roadway Design: Long and Winding Road
Students examine how curves in roads are designed and how speed limits are set based on the amount of curvature and banking that exists in the design. Students will also look at redesigning an existing road for safe travel at a high speed.
Roof Pitch: Residential Design
Students act as builders, specifically choosing the roof pitch for a new “barndominium” to allow for a possible second floor in the future and calculating materials needed.
Math Concept: Statistics
Automotive Adhesives: Production Analysis
Students use statistics to determine change over time of an adhesive, investigate potential causes and develop a potential solution.
Be the Statistician: Virus Growth and Vaccine Production
Students use mathematical modeling to determine the ideal temperature for virus growth and vaccine production, and they also use statistics to compare the efficacy of two drugs.
Drug Delivery Implant: Data Design Analysis
Students use the mean and standard deviation to determine the best method of delivery of a drug into the human body.
Mind Your Tolerance: Process Engineering
Students use statistics to determine which inhaler canisters are out of tolerance.
Virus Maximus: Virus Growth and Vaccine Production
Students use 1-Proportion Z-test to determine which strains are significantly different from the control. They will then calculate which of the statically significant virus st
Vital Few: Those Who Make the Biggest Impact
Students learn how to create a Pareto chart to analyze why a system isn’t working and apply the 80/20 rule to make recommendations for improving processes.
Math Concept: Modeling
Controlling the Flow: Wastewater Management
Students use mathematical modeling to determine the size of the pump needed to move wastewater to a treatment facility.
Math Concept: Matrices
Matrix Logistics: Building Your Order
Students use matrices to determine if they have the supplies required to build a hydra rack.