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For the holidays, I received the Pop Quiz Wall Clock from one of my Mathletes.  It gave me an idea for a lesson where we create a theme for our clock and create the equations or symbols that represent the numbers 1-12.  The number one is 102,413 - 102,412; 2 is the square root of 4; 3 is 198 divided by 66; and so on.

The song, the 12 Days of Christmas, is a fun (albeit repetitive) song about the gifts given to "My True Love" on the 12 days of Christmas between the birth of Jesus Christ and the Epiphany, January 6th, the day Christians celebrate the arrival of the Magi (Wise Men).  The Mathletes had fun singing this tune, but where is the math?

The Burj Khalifa, located in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, is the tallest building in the world as of January 4, 2010.  It was known as the Burj Dubai (arabic for Dubai Tower), until it almost went bankrupt and was bailed out by the leader of neighboring Abu Dhabi, Khalifa.  The statistics are:

Height: 2,717 feet (828 meters)

Floors: 160

Elevators: 54

The Mathletes made six parallelograms out of square colored paper and then connected them using perpendicular lines to make a cube.  During the holiday break, Mathletes should make as many of these cubes as possible and then put them together to make a building .

See directions on the attached YouTube link http://www.videojug.com/webvideo/how-to-fold-an-origami-cube-with-six-pieces.

Happy Holidays.