Math in Everyday Life
Have you ever wondered why you spend countless hours doing math in school? Do you ever ask yourself, “Why do I have to learn this? I’ll never use this in real life!” You probably have and you’re not alone. That is why this year in math we will be doing some ‘real life’ activities that use math. The first one we’ll be doing is some cooking. Below is the scenario:
“You are having a party and you want to make apple crisp so you can wow your guests. Your mom gave you this recipe but it only feeds a few people. You decide to double the recipe so it will feed more people.”
Apple Crisp
3 apples- cut into ¼. Divide the ¼ apples into ¼
1/8 cup sugar
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1/8- cup butter
¼ cup flour
3/8 cup brown sugar
Peel apples, slice into buttered dish. Sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon. Combine butter, flour and brown sugar. Put on top of apples.
Bake at 350 degrees for 25- 30 minutes
Reflections:
When we completed making the apple crisp, we came back to class to reflect. I asked some questions such as, "Did you like doing this?", "What did you learn?", "Was it a success?". Students said they all really enjoyed doing the activity and that they learned a lot such as:
- you do use math in everyday life
- simplifying fractions is very important since all the measuring cups/spoons are in lowest terms
- learning 'by doing' is a great and effective way to learn
- units of measure are very important since 1/2 cup is much different than 1/2 tsp
Students hope we get to do more 'real life' math very soon!
Taste Test Results: As a class, we never went over the "right" answers for doubling the recipe. Students could see if they doubled the recipe and followed the recipe correctly by the way the apple crisp looked and tasted. We even brought in an independent taste taster so the students could have an unbias critique.
 |
Thanks Mrs. Smysnuik for being the tasting judge! |
No comments:
Post a Comment