The task requires the student to use logarithms to solve an exponential equation in the realistic context of carbon dating, important in archaeology and geology, among other places. Students should be guided to recognize the use of the natural logarithm when the exponential function has the given base of e, as in this problem. Note that the purpose of this task is algebraic in nature -- closely related tasks exist which approach similar problems from numerical or graphical stances.

In the task "Carbon 14 Dating'' the amount of Carbon 14 in a preserved plant is studied as time passes after the plant has died. In practice, however, scientists wish to determine when the plant died and, as this task shows, this is not possible with a simple measurement of the amount of Carbon 14 remaining in the preserved plant. The equation for the amount of Carbon 14 remaining in the preserved plant is in many ways simpler here, using 12 as a base.

This problem introduces the method used by scientists to date certain organic material. It is based not on the amount of the Carbon 14 isotope remaining in the sample but rather on the ratio of Carbon 14 to Carbon 12. This ratio decreases, hypothetically, at a constant exponential rate as soon as the organic material has ceased to absorb Carbon 14, that is, as soon as it dies. This problem is intended for instructional purposes only. It provides an interesting and important example of mathematical modeling with an exponential function.

This exploratory task requires the student to use a property of exponential functions in order to estimate how much Carbon 14 remains in a preserved plant after different amounts of time.

This task lets students explore the concept of independence of events. There are two alternative ways of solving the problem.

In this task, students can see that if the price level increases and peopleŐs incomes do not increase, they arenŐt able to purchase as many goods and services; in other words, their purchasing power decreases.

This task presents a real-world problem requiring the students to write linear equations to model different cell phone plans. Looking at the graphs of the lines in the context of the cell phone plans allows the students to connect the meaning of the intersection points of two lines with the simultaneous solution of two linear equations.

This simple task assesses whether students can interpret function notation. The four parts of the task provide a logical progression of exercises for advancing understanding of function notation and how to interpret it in terms of a given context.

The purpose of this task is to use geometric and algebraic reasoning to model a real-life scenario. In particular, students are in several places (implicitly or explicitly) to reason as to when making approximations is reasonable and when to round, when to use equalities vs. inequalities, and the choice of units to work with (e.g., mm vs. cm).

The purpose of the task is to connect properties of fractional exponents with ordering of real numbers. One can place the numbers on the number line to emphasize this.

This problem includes a percent increase in one part with a percent decrease in the remaining and asks students to find the overall percent change. The problem may be solved using proportions or by reasoning through the computations or writing a set of equations.

This task presents a real world situation that can be modeled with a linear function best suited for an instructional context.

This task is intended strictly for instructional purposes with the goal of building understandings of linear relationships within a meaningful and, hopefully, somewhat familiar context.

In this task students use different representations to analyze the relationship between two quantities and to solve a real world problem. The situation presented provides a good opportunity to make connections between the information provided by tables, graphs and equations.

Arianna has been saving her chore money all summer. Her mother has allowed her to spend the money on school supplies of Arianna’s choosing. Here are some of her favorite items and the price for each

This task suggests methods of introducing and continuing choral counting in the classroom.

Teachers (and then students) lead the class in chanting numbers from 1 to 120.

The purpose of this task is for students to find different pairs of numbers that sum to 7.

This task is primarily about volume and surface area, although it also gives students an early look at converting between measurements in scale models and the real objects they correspond to.

Although this task is fairly straightforward, it is worth noticing that it does not explicitly tell students to look for intersection points when they graph the circle and the line. Thus, in addition to assessing whether they can solve the system of equations, it is assessing a simple but important piece of conceptual understanding, namely the correspondence between intersection points of the two graphs and solutions of the system.