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"2 Truths and a Lie" Error Analysis Math Activities
Fun Activities for Building Data Literacy
Before becoming a teacher, I worked in the environmental consulting field between leaky gas stations and the Department of Environmental Protection. Part of my job was to collect data from soil and water samples at gas stations, interpret this data and report on it. I learned at this job that data interpretation is more subjective than I had thought. For example, dropping one more monitoring well into the groundwater upstream from a leaking tank will drop the overall average of the amount of gasoline in the groundwater at a leaky gas station. I lasted 3 years in that field before making the move to teaching. It wasn't for me.
And then there's the difference between mean and median when it comes to home prices and pay. Often the median is given in these situations so that outliers don't throw off the data making the numbers appear greater than they are. Interpreting this data and talking about the differences makes for interesting classroom discussion.
In this post I want to share a few fun activities you can use in your classroom to teach data analysis.
Finding Percent of a Number Cheat Sheet
Knowing how to calculate the percentage of a number is pretty much the basis of consumer math. This skill comes up when calculating interest, tips at restaurants, discounts from coupons, tax on purchased items and with budgeting. It's such a simple but important skill for students to learn and really become comfortable with before graduation.
In this post, I want to share a finding percentage of a number handout for your students.
After sharing the sheet in the Facebook group, I got feedback to add 1% to the sheet. So when you download it, how to find 1% will also be there.
>> You can download the finding percentage of a number sheet here from my Google Drive.
Percent activities
Percent Tax, Tip, Discount Digital Math Escape Room |
Converting Fractions, Decimals, Percents Digital Math Escape Room |
Percent Change Task Cards Activity |
Percent Change Coloring Sheet |
2 Pi Day digital math escape room activities
Today is Pi Day so I wanted to share a couple digital activity ideas. Both also come in print, if you prefer having your students work on paper.
The first is a Pi Day digital math escape room for middle school where students find either the area or the circumference of a circle, given diameter or radius. Students calculate their answers then type the correct 4-letter code to move to the next puzzle.
The next is a Pi Day digital math escape room for older kids. In some of the problems, students are asked to find the diameter or radius, given circumference or area. The correct 4-letter code will unlock the next puzzle.
My husband forwarded the Morning Brew newsletter to me this morning with this absolutely astounding story about Akira Haraguchi memorizing 100,000 digits of pi. 100 digits would be impressive, but 100,000?! The short article mentions him "mentally linking each digit with a syllable and creating a collection of epic stories from the words those syllables formed."😲
Browse all Pi Day math activities
Browse all digital math escape rooms
How many folds to reach the Moon?
Free Printable Multiplication Poster
Teaching Budgeting in High School Consumer Math
In our wages and salary unit, we learned that net monthly income is about 70% of gross monthly income. We often used this net income estimation when budgeting.
New Health Insurance Unit-- consumer math curriculum
The Scaffolded Consumer Math Curriculum has a new unit-- health insurance. Students will learn the ins and outs of copays, coinsurance, deductibles, out of pocket maximums, and of course the math behind it all.
Just like every other unit in the curriculum, the new health insurance unit includes a printable PDF student book unit, a teacher's unit with answers to questions asked in the student book, student notebook pages, PowerPoint notes, an editable quiz, warm-ups and all answer keys.
Vocabulary includes: premium, deductible, plan, deductible balance, HMP, PPO, copay, coinsurance, PCP, referral, specialist, out of pocket maximum, open enrollment period.
There's a lot of math involved in health insurance, especially between meeting a deductible and meeting OOPM, and with coinsurance payments. My hope is that this new unit clarifies health insurance for your students and gives them confidence calculating costs.