Illustrative Mathematics: 6.ee,ns,rp; 8.ee,f Pennies to Heaven

The goal of this task is to give students a context to investigate large numbers and measurements. Students need to fluently convert units with very large numbers in order to successfully complete this task. The total number of pennies minted either in a single year or for the last century is phenomenally large and difficult to grasp. One way to assess how large this number is would be to consider how far all of these pennies would reach if we were able to stack them one on top of another: this is another phenomenally large number but just how large may well come as a surprise. In particular, before they start working on the problem, the teacher may wish to ask the students whether or not they think it would be possible to reach the moon with this giant stack of pennies. Aligns with 6.EE.B.6.