The purpose of this activity is to engage students in using proportional thinking 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.
Simon is helping to organise the 18th birthday celebrations of the local cycling club.
They think abut 270 people will attend.
If they give a spot prize to every 18th person, how many prizes will they need?
What percentage of the people would get a prize?
On the day, 360 people attend. How many more spot prizes are needed?
Is the percentage of people who get the prizes the same in both cases?
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 calculates the different amounts to find a solution.
Click on the image to enlarge it. Click again to close.
The student solves the problem in a reasoned way and uses calculation to justify their approach.
Printed from https://nzmaths.co.nz/resource/spot-prizes at 6:44pm on the 2nd May 2024