Math Projects for Sixth Graders

Math projects allow students to demonstrate mastery of academic material and use the knowledge independently of textbook problems. Projects can show practical applications for math skills, such as learning to live in a budget or analyzing how individual opinions affect the outcome of an election. Projects that are fun and encourage students to pursue their interests can motivate students to enjoy learning new math skills.

Life on a Budget

Budgeting is a skill sixth grade students can master and use for a lifetime. Students can compare prices at local grocery stores and online markets to determine how to best manage their grocery budget. A student can also analyze how much money is saved buying produce at the store versus growing it at home or banding together with other families to buy produce in bulk and dividing it up based on shares. For students not interested in food prices, they might compare the cost of buying a used vehicle as opposed to a new one, interest costs on an auto loan or the best option for spending a clothing allowance.

Sports Math

Many students enjoy sports, and math figures heavily in athletics. A sports enthusiast might begin his project with a specific salary cap and recruit the best team based on the hiring contracts and performance statistics from the previous recruiting cycle. He can compare statistics of favorite players or analyze performances from previous Olympics competitions to determine which countries score better over a specific time period. On a personal level, students can rate their skills improvement during a season or improvement during a two- to four-week period based on elapsed time and performance in running, swimming or other individual sport. Students can use charts and graphs to plot performance or demonstrate changes using decimals, fractions and percentages.

Mathematical Current Events

Elections, weather and government expenditures are just a few options students can use to apply mathematical skills in analyzing current events. Students might compare recorded local temperatures, rainfall or other weather factors to analyze weather and climate trends. Based on previous elections, they could predict which candidates have the best chance of winning a local election. A student could chart the national debt and determine how much his generation will likely pay over the next 30 years to reduce or eliminate the national debt given current national gross product and the growth of the debt ceiling.

Survey This

Challenge students to draft a slate of candidates with multiple-choice options and poll their classmates to predict the outcome of an election or analyze how a specific issue affects which candidates. For another option, survey which musical groups, video games, movies or fashion trends are most popular with classmates and what share each option earns. Students can plot the mean, mode and range for options and chart the results on line and bar graphs or pie charts. Alternatively, for an actual local or national election, a student might compare her classmates’ votes to final election results using fractions, percentages and graphs.

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