The purpose of this activity is to engage students in working with common fractions, decimals and percentages interchangeably, to solve a problem.
This activity assumes the students have experience in the following areas:
The problem is sufficiently open ended to allow the students freedom of choice in their approach. It may be scaffolded with guidance that leads to a solution, and/or the students might be given the opportunity to solve the problem independently.
The example responses at the end of the resource give an indication of the kind of response to expect from students who approach the problem in particular ways.
An intermediate school has ten classes with 24 students in each.
Instead of regular classes, it is offering 6 ‘electives’ for a week when 20% of the students will be away for an interschool sports exchange.
0.125 of the students who will remain at school, have chosen to take elective A.
One sixth chose elective B.
The rest of the students all chose the four electives, C, D, E and F in an exactly even split.
How many students can the teachers taking C expect in their elective?
The following prompts illustrate how this activity can be structured around the phases of the Mathematics Investigation Cycle.
Introduce the problem. Allow students time to read it and discuss in pairs or small groups.
Discuss ideas about how to solve the problem. Emphasise that, in the planning phase, you want students to say how they would solve the problem, not to actually solve it.
Allow students time to work through their strategy and find a solution to the problem.
Allow students time to check their answers and then either have them pair share with other groups or ask for volunteers to share their solution with the class.
The student solves a problem involving decimals, percentages, and fractions, with guidance.
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The student uses numerical strategies to solve a problem involving decimals, percentages, and fractions independently.
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The student combines graphic representation and arithmetic strategies to solve a problem involving mixed decimals, percentages, and fractions independently.
Printed from https://nzmaths.co.nz/resource/choosing-classes at 10:19pm on the 19th May 2024