Tuesday 26 January 2010

Bon Voyage!

We are just over half way through our KS3 maths work book and things were getting rather tedious, so much stuff to read through, remember and then tests at the end. Painful (more than usual) cries from Katie and Ben lead me to think of something more interesting for them to do that included all this new learning.

I decided to send them on a voyage. I typed out a sheet of things I wanted to them to, which started with finding two countries that they'd like to visit. They had to find out about that country, where it was on the map (and also which continent), the country's flag and which currency it used. I told them how much spending money they could take and they had to convert it into the correct currency (showing all the workings of course). They then have to find all transport links, times, prices etc., which could include car parking fees, travel by train, boat, car or plane. Then next was sourcing a hotel in the correct location (and at a decent price!) and finally visit two places of interest finding out the cost of those attractions. At the end of the trip, having deducted any spending money from their original pocket money they had to convert it back to Sterling. Along they way, they also had to work out a 27% discount on their chosen travel and 1/3 of their return money to put into savings.

I think they enjoyed that. Ben asked to do something similar for a couple of cars which he's just finished, working quite well by himself so hopefully the new maths has sunk in now. Katie continued with her world tour by designing a tourist leaflet for the Sydney Harbour Bridge climb.

Bon Voyage!

1 comment:

Sam said...

That's brilliant! Not only can they apply maths to the real world - they sound like they'd be very useful on a holiday :-)