Middle School Math Games & Projects
Middle school math projects and games are a great way for students to engage in math topics on a deeper level. These opportunities allow educators to have fun with their students while encouraging mathematical learning. Hands-on math projects and games can enhance math instruction and be a successful way to practice various concepts of math. Here you will find a list of math game and project ideas that are suitable for middle school aged children.
Math Scavenger Hunt
Many children love to do scavenger hunts, and math scavenger hunts are no exception. Teachers can make a list of things for the students to find. There should be several of each item, such as a certain measurement, a percentage, a phone number, or a time. These items can be cut out of newspapers or magazines or found scattered in the classroom.
- Math Scavenger Hunt: This type of math scavenger hunts asks students to clip out the number and paste it next to the description.
- Find and Cut Out: Math scavenger hunt with a list of items for students to find in a newspaper or magazine to cut out and glue.
- Corn in the Classroom: This math scavenger hunts uses an online website to locate numbers and calculate to find solutions.
Working with money can be a fun project for many students who are new to finances. This middle school math game involves providing each student with a checking account, imaginary of course. After assigning them a certain amount of credit and a shopping list of items and/or utility bills, they must create a budget to determine what on the list they can purchase. Remember that they must add in tax. Provide fake checks for each student to practice their check writing skills.
- Printable Budget Worksheets: These budget worksheets can be opened in excel or printed and used for a variety of math projects.
- Checking Account – Checkbook Lessons: Here you will find printable checks, check register, deposit slips, and skills for paying bills.
- Cash Out Online Game: This online game for students involves giving the exact change back for items that are purchased by customers.
Math Board Games
There are limitless ways to create interactive middle school math games. Allow the students to get into several small groups. Assign each group a chapter of the math concepts that you have gone over so that each of the chapters is covered. Give the students class time to work on the math games as a group. Students can incorporate fake money, dice, game cards, and any other elements into the game to help learn the given math topics.
- Tic-Tac-Math: This math game is developed for sixth and seventh grade students who must add, subtract, divide, or multiply to get the number twenty-four.
- Create Your Own Math Game: Directions on how to create a math board game related to fractions and decimals.
- Math Board Games Samples: Collection of card games, print and play game sheets, and other sample math games.
Geometry Map Project
Middle school math projects should involve instructions that will challenge the students. In this math project, students will design a map of their neighborhood, town, or any made-up location. However, the map must be made up of a list of math concepts created by the teacher. These could include two sets of streets that are parallel, two sets that are perpendicular, one street that intersects with another street to form an acute angle, and similar tasks.
- Geometry Projects: Collection of fun geometry middle school math projects that teach angles, rotations, and more.
- Make Your Own Tetrapuzzle: Students must construct a cube using ten tetrahedral pieces.
- Building Big: This site includes challenges and interactive labs where students must determine how geography is used in the building of large structures.
Surveys can be a fun opportunity for children to interact with one another. This math project consists of each student surveying other students in or out of the classroom and collecting results. The survey topic can be on anything the teacher agrees to, such as what food students would like to see in the cafeteria. Once the results have been collected, the student must create a graph to show the results.
- Applying Graphs: Graph project for seventh grade students on various types of graphs and how to create them.
- The Trebuchet Project: Grades five through nine can practice their graphing skills hands-on with the trebuchet project.
- Game of Sprouts: Introduction to the graph theory through a game known as the “Sprouts”.
Design Your Dream House
Kids love to be creative and their creativity can be used in middle school math projects. The design a dream house project involves each student creating a 2D version of the front of a house. This house must include four windows and two doors. All of the lines on the house must be drawn with a ruler. Next, the students must determine the area and perimeter of each window, door, and the front of the house. They can then convert these measurements for additional mathematic practice.
- Dream House Project: Another version of the dream house project involves planning and designing your dream house within certain cost constraints.
- Area and Perimeter: This project involves drawing a house on graph paper and determining how much fencing will be needed, as well as measurements of the rooms.
- Simple Irregular Figures: Students must get into groups to determine perimeter and area of irregular figures.
Probability games are popular as students are able to guess the outcomes. The game of pig is one of the more well-known probability games that involve the rolling of dice. The student can roll the dice as many times as they want, keeping tract of the total of the sums on each dice. If the student rolls a “1”, their turn has ended and the score returns back to zero. If both dice reveal a “1”, then that player’s turn is ended and the total becomes zero. Students then understand that the longer that they play, the more of a chance that they will get a “1” or double “1”.
- Pig – A Probability Experiment: Directions for teachers on how to play the game “pig” with the entire class.
- Which Number Wins: Probability game from Scholastic that involves the rolling of dice.
- Treats in a Basket Teacher Worksheet: Game designed to encourage students who are comfortable with fractions to experiment with probability.
Working with Fractions
There are plenty of fun and educational games that can be used with fractions. The card game of war is a popular one that many children already know how to play. Instead of using regular playing cards, the students can use cards with fractions on them. Each student must compare two fractions to determine which is bigger and which is smaller.
- Owl Adventures Math Game: Answer the questions correctly to gain points and add the value of that question to your total.
- Math Games for Skills and Concepts: Collection of math games that work with fractions, double-digit addition, and order of operations, probability, and more.
- Fun Fraction Games: Here you will find several games related to fractions, such as fraction card game, fraction memory, and fraction word search.
Ratios and Proportions
Exploring ratios and proportions can be done in a hands-on math project. For example, students can get into several small groups and walk around the classroom, or school, and find shadows, similar triangles, and their proportions by measuring. Students can measure each other, basketball hoops, trees, or even the flagpole. The students can then use these proportions to mathematically determine the height of each object.
- Divine Proportion: Students must answer questions about proportions and ratios.
- All about Ratios: Online activity for students learning about preparations and ratio.
- Basketball Proportion: Students can work individually or in pairs to discover the proportion of a baseball bat.
In middle school, word problems can be one of the most difficult types of mathematical topics. Students must read a short summary or story and try to find a solution. Addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions, and other math concepts may be involved. The students incorporate one or several of these concepts to find a solution to the word problem.
- Problem Solving with Multiplication: Online game for students that uses word problems in which students must find a solution.
- Averages – Word Problems: Students must read the word problems to figure out the average in each question.
- Disaster Math for Kids: Find the answer for each of these disaster math questions.
Middle school math games and middle school math projects can be incorporated into any classroom math curriculum for fun and interactive learning. The following resources will provide you with additional math games and projects.
- Games for Drill and Practice: Basic practice math games that uses cards, pennies, and calculators.
- Integer Card Game: Helps students increase speed when practicing integer problem solving.
- Demonstrations Project: Here you will find several middle school math projects.
- Factor Game: Online strategy game for students to help distinguish between numbers with many factors and those with few factors.
- Number and Number Relations: Students can explore problem solving and reasoning.
- Alive Maths: Students identify relationships between patterns and answers mathematical questions.
- March Madness: Basketball project for students that consists of several math concepts, including probability, fractions, statistics, percentages, and decimals.
- How Many Colors: Each student must determine the least amount of colors needed to color part of a map of the United States.
- Creative Ways to Teach Graphing: Here you will find several creative ways to teach graphing in the classroom.
- Fraction Games: Collection of fraction games, as well as a tutorial on how to solve simple, mixed, equivalent, and other types of fractions.