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Math Playground: Math at the Mall

 

Curator: Hilary Pehrson

 

Name & Link to Tech Tool or Tool homepage: Math at the Mall (Discounts, Tips, Interest) http://www.mathplayground.com/mathatthemall2.html

 

Brief Description of Tech Tool: Math at the Mall is an interactive activity in which students practice calculating percents. Specifically, students visit the bank, the gym, the toy store, and the cafe and at each of these different places students have to calculate the percentage of the interest, discount, or tips. Additionally, students then have to calculate the total bill, sale price, or total amount of money earned. Due to the scaffolded nature of the tool (the questions are broken down into steps) this would be a very helpful tool for students struggling to understand these mathematical concepts.

 

EVALUATION

 

Description of Learning Activity

Option 1: Math at the Mall is a great online learning activity for students to use to practice calculating discounts, tips and interest. Students can practice independently and the guided steps that Math at the Mall provides will allow even struggling learners to access the content. Additionally, students earn "gold coins" for correct answers which makes the activity more engaging!

Option 2: I would be very interested to try this activity as an exploration of tips, discounts, and interest. Since students typically struggle to determine whether to add or subtract the percentage calculated, I think starting with this real life application could elicit a great conversation. When students are "purchasing" food items through Math at the Mall it may be more obvious to add the cost of the tip then trying a similar problem from a text book. Also, the Math at the Mall activity gives hints that will help students make these connections. Of course, this exploration could only be done if students already know how to calculate percents. The activity could then be followed up by a writing activity about when to add or subtract, and then more guided practice.

 

1. Learning Activity Types

  • LA-Practice - practicing for fluencyMath at the Mall requires students to practice calculating percents through real-life practice problems. Tips, discounts, and interest are calculated as well as the total cost or price.

  • LA-Explore - exploring/investigating mathematical ideasThrough Math at the Mall students could use their background knowledge of calculating percents to determine whether or not you add or subtract the percent from the original amount (the applet does give some hints!). This could then elicit a great class conversation about calculating tips, discounts, interest, and perhaps even other situations like tax.

  • LA-Apply - applying mathematics to problems and situationsMath at the Mall is real-world application problems of percents. Students have to apply what they know about calculating percents to find the sales price or total cost.

 

2. What mathematics is being learned?

 

NCTM Standards

  • NCTM-N&0-understand operations - understand meanings of operations and how they relate to one another;

  • NCTM-N&0-compute fluently - compute fluently and make reasonable estimates

 

VA SOL Strands

  • 8.3 a, b - The student will a) solve practical problems involving rational numbers, percents, ratios, and proportions; and b) determine the percent increase or decrease for a given situation.

 

Proficiency Strands

  • PS-conceptual understandingMath at the Mall requires students to have a conceptual understanding of tips, discounts, and interest. Students must use multiple steps to determine the total price (including determining whether to add or subtract).

  • PS-procedural fluencyMath at the Mall practices calculating percents.

  • PS-productive dispositionMath at the Mall is a real-life example of where mathematics is used (however, some of the costs are a little unreasonable - french fries cost more than a hamburger!).

 

Additional comments on what is being learned

This activity provides students with procedural practice, but also requires them to demonstrate a conceptual understanding the real-life applications of tips, discounts, and interest.

 

3. How is the mathematics represented?

At each store, students get to select their items to put on the counter. These manipulatives are taken from the store shelves to the clerk at the counter. Students then begin each problem by calculating the total purchase amount. The questions, hints, and answers are written in words. For example, the question asks for the dollar amount of the tip, the hint will tell students to calculate 10% of 42.00, and if a student clicks on learn how, the description of how to due the calculation is also written in words. All students answers have to be written as dollar amounts including cents.

 

4. What role does technology play?

This activity would be a very advantageous way for students to practice calculating tips, percents, or interests as it requires students to calculate sums of money, it breaks down each question into manageable steps, and it provides real-life application questions. Also, due to the game like nature of the tool, I imagine students will be very invested in earning gold coins.While the activity is strong, I do not like that the hints given essentially tell students the calculation process. If I could change this tool, I would remove the hints after the first practice problem at each place.

 

Affordances of Technology for Supporting Learning

  • Accessing Information - Students are given immediate feedback on whether or not the answer is correct. Additionally, there is a learn how button if a student is completely stuck and can't determine an answer.

 

5. How does the technology fit or interact with the social context of learning?

This activity should be completed individually. Due to the scaffolded nature of this tool, even struggling learners can experience success practicing independently. This technology eliminates a discussion about when to add or subtract the percent calculation so I would suggest incorporating this before or after the activity depending on whether this activity was used for practice or as an exploration. Either way I can see a discussion about when to add or subtract and a brainstorm of additional real-life scenarios that involve percentages and adding/subtracting.

 

6. What do teachers and learners need to know?

This technology tool is fairly easy to use. Students must write their answers as dollar amounts. The game will tell you that your numbers are correct, but before the student can move to the next question, he/she must enter the value use dollars and cents. Also, students are trying to earn 4 gold coins (one at each "store" at the mall) which makes it more "game-like". Teachers should know that this game provides students with MANY hints. It is very scaffolded and breaks questions into steps (i.e. What is your total bill? Calculate 20% of the total bill. Add that number to the total bill). Again, this can be especially helpful to struggling learners as this is a very strong guided practice, but may also bore high level students.

 

7.  How can the resource support/facilitate PBL?

This game can be played in conjunction with PBL to extend the learning and include meaningful practice at home and/or at school.

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