I have said this before but I just love the blog, Math in the Middle. We just don’t have enough math blogs or enough middle school blogs out there, and I can always count on this one for a unique and inspiring idea. Today’s pick is this A Year Is… activity. I have often said that we don’t pay enough attention to number sense in our math lessons. This results in learners in high school who can’t answer questions like, “Explain the difference between a million and a billion” or “Approximately how tall is the Empire State Building?” What I love most about this activity is that students may learn as much from their peers as they do from their own research. It is also clearly easy to differentiate. Students can take on a problem that is very complex or one that requires just a few steps.