Using Unit Rates to Save Money
Part 1: Lesson Description
Lesson Title: Using unit rates to save money
Abstract
Planning for the future is a difficult task for most. This lesson ask the learner to participate in role-play and to assume the role of someone who has just graduated and accepted a job and to develop a budget where the goal is to save for a vacation to be taken in a year’s time. The role that the learner is asked to assume is Madison. The name was chosen specifically because it is a unisex name. The character, Madison, has just graduated, but the story intentionally does not reveal the credential that was achieved. The learner is asked to develop a budget with the salary and withheld taxes already established. For learners living in a rural area, the salary may seem high for a recent graduate, but for a learner from an urban area, the salary may seem low. Along with assuming this identity comes the tasks of making decisions for him/her. The actual math problems have definitive answers which are provided for the instructor, but the decisions enable the learner to develop a unique budget. Unit rate is used to help the learner visualize the decisions that are made on a daily basis that may impact savings. Problems included ask the learner to make decisions about housing, transportation, health, and spending. The variety of problems enable the learner to compute unit rates and understand how quantities can be measured in different units. The instructor is a facilitator only, examples of calculations are included in the materials for guidance.
Learner Audience / Primary Users
The learner audience is any adult who has a reading ability of at least 6th grade and who is interested in developing numeracy skills to obtain a GED or high school equivalency diploma. Learners who are just beginning to live on their own or are anticipating independence will benefit the most as they are placed in a real-life scenario of making daily decisions using unit rate that will aid in budgeting and saving.
Educational Use
●Curriculum / Instruction
●Adult Basic Education
●GED preparation
Language
English
Material Type
●Instructional Material
●Lesson Plan
●Student Activities
●Student Guide
●Teacher handouts
Keywords
●Designers for Learning
●Adult Education
●Unit rate
●Budget
Time Required for Lesson
2 sessions:
Session 1: 30 minutes
Session 2: 45-60 minutes
Targeted Skills
Key skills covered in this lesson include:
●Budgeting with a future goal in mind
●Using unit rate to solve problems including those used in possible GED examinations
●Recognizing unit rate involves multiple measures of units including but not excluded to pricing
Learning Objectives
In completing this lesson, learners will:
- Calculate unit rates involving cost per unit where the unit may be a calendar unit, measure such as pound or ounces, food packaging such as a can or box, or person;
- Determine the best value by comparing two or more unit prices that involve decimals representations with place value to the ten-thousandths;
- Compute at least three unit rates when quantities are measured in different units
- List at least five unit rates used to create a budget.
College & Career Readiness Standards (CCRS) Alignment
●Level: Adult Education
●Grade Level: CCRS Grade Level C and D
●Subject: Mathematics
●Domain: Ratios and proportional relationships
○Standard Description:
6.RP.1: Understand ratio concepts and use ratio reasoning to solve problems
6.RP.2: Understand the concept of a unit rate a/b associated with ratio a:b with b 0 and use rate language in the context of a ratio relationship using non-complex fractions and whole dollars.
6.RP.3b: Solve unit rate problems including those involving unit pricing.
7.RP.1: Compute unit rates associated with ratios of fractions where quantities are measured in like or different units.
7.RP.2 Identify the constant of proportionality (unit rate) in verbal descriptions of proportional relationships.
Prior Knowledge
Reading level six grade or above.
Understand division notation using a/b and division representation.
Understand rounding to the nearest whole dollar or to the nearest penny
Understand comparing decimals to the ten-thousandth place value
Use of Excel is helpful
Required Resources
Calculator
Access to computer to use a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet budget would be helpful
Printer to furnish printed handouts for students and instructors
Lesson Author & License
●Lesson Author: Cheryl Keener
●License: Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 license
Part 2: Lesson
Instructional Strategies and Activities
Session 1
Warm-Up
Time: 15 minutes
Ask students: “Have you ever run out of money to do something you hoped to do? Let’s share examples. What Happened in each case.”
Introduction
Time: 30 minutes
Distribute Student Handout, Budget handout
Introduce challenge: Assume the persona Madison and prepare a budget with the goal to save money for a vacation. Allow students to look at the incomplete budget and discuss with them how a budget works; how allotments are subtracted from the take-home pay each month. Ask students to consider whether they should decide on savings amount first (Pay yourself first) or see how much is left after the budget is completed. If students have access to a computer and can work on the budget using Excel, allow them to enter some data from guidance of the instructor to see what happens. Clear those entries before the students actually begin the story or provide a clean budget for students to begin the story.
Session 2
Review
Time: 5 minutes
Review how the budget helps us plan for the future; how each section is added and then subtracted from available money. Allow students to lead the review.
Presentation / Modeling / Demonstration
Time: 5 minutes
Distribute Session 2 portion of the Madison scenario All worksheets may be distributed at once or distributed as needed in the lesson.. Worksheets are completed as students work through the story which lead students through completion of the budget. Learners are presented with decisions concerning their budget in areas of transportation, food, and housing. Each section continues the story which describes the related scenario.
Guided Practice
Time: 5 minutes
The worksheets include modeling of math problems where some of the problem has been filled in. Application follows. As the story progresses, less modeling is included.
Application
Time: 40 minutes
Calculations and decisions follow each guided practice as learners complete their budget.
Evaluation
Time: 8 minutes
Learners will have completed a budget that is developed largely by calculating unit rates. Learners will be asked to reflect on the unit rates that they calculated in this lesson, how they calculated unit rates in general, and what unit rates might influence their lives.
Key Terms and Concepts
Metro card: a card similar to a debit card. Money is loaded onto the card. The card is swiped every time public transportation is used
MPG: miles per gallon
Ratio: a quotient of two quantities
Unit: description of what a quantity measures or counts
Unit analysis: the process of using unit measurement when computing
Unit pricing: price per unit
Unit rate: the rate measurement for one unit
Part 3: Supplementary Resources & References
Supplementary Resources
References
Fares and Metro Card (n.d.). Retrieved from http://web.mta.info/metrocard/mcgtreng.htm
401kcalculator.org (2012). Budget ahead – road sign. Retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos/68751915@N05/6869762317/