Curriculum Guide for Finding Math in the Real-World Setting
Curriculum Guide for Finding the Math in the Real-World Setting
Prerequisites: varies
Length: varies
Course Description: This course will assist learners to find the math that is used in the real-world. Learners will learn how to solve real-life problems using mathematical stills they will acquire as they work through these lessons. By the end of this course, learners will be able to design their own project and discuss the math in it with their classmates.
OER: (Pick one)
Business and Finance
Agriculture & Natural Resources
Information and Communication Technologies:
Teacher-facing instructions:
First, review the OER that you selected. Go through each piece and make sure you feel comfortable with the content. Remember, that you do not have to use all the content in an OER. You can copy, distribute, display, perform or remix these lessons to fit your classroom.
Think about how you can show learners that math isn’t just something you do. Familiarize yourself with this idea by watching these videos:
Now, you can better understand that not only will you be teaching mathematics. You will be teaching it in a way that will assist learners with a conceptual understanding. Remember, math isn’t just about doing something – it is thinking creatively about a problem or situation that uses numbers.
Classroom examples:
Let’s look at how you might choose to incorporate an OER lesson. I will pick, “Would you Survive the Zombie Apolcalypse?” You will need a scientific calculator for this lesson
At first glance, there is a lot to unpack here. So let’s just pick one of these lessons to work with, I will pick, “Personal Budget for Zombie Survival”
Notice that this lesson steps the stage with a video. NOTE: If you don’t have a video or internet in your classroom then create your own discussion around budgets by asking the following questions:
Does your family utilize a budget?
Have you ever had to take drastic or unrealistic ways to save money? (think about bringing up the situations you observed in the video)
Talk about the difficulties of being on a budget.
Talk about setting realistic savings goals.
The next activity for this lesson is a pair and share, groups of students will read the activity and then share their findings by summarizing what they read to everyone in the group. NOTE: If you have a class that has low-level readers then you can take time in class to read them.
After the reading activity, you should ask learners if they have ever had to buy a house. If so, did they acquire a mortgage to purchase it. Then display the formula for finding a mortgage rate payment on the board. Ask students what do they notice about the formula and what do they wonder about it. NOTE: make sure students understand what each letter represents and review the concept of order of operations.
Then allow students to use the website provided by the lesson or they can figure different payments using a calculator. Have students pick different values and share their findings with each other. Be sure to ask students if anything surprised them as they explored the different payment amounts, interest rates, and terms of the loans.
The next part of the lesson has students work independently, this is labeled “Expenses and Income” and “Randomizer”. You can either choose to follow this lesson or you can guide students through an example first. There is even a way to assess their understanding.
EXTENSION: For this lesson, you could ask your learners to track their expenses for a week and then work on creating a budget based on their numbers.
Potential Math topics covered: computation, order of operations, exponents, percentages, decimals, algebraic thinking, etc.
Best Practices
It is always best to adjust your lessons to fit the needs of your students in the time you are able to work with them. Do not feel that this entire lesson must be taught in one sitting. This one lesson may be extended over several days or even weeks.
It is best to allow learners to think through the mathematics and allow them time to think creatively about each task you have given them. Additionally, there may be a need to review some of the concepts of this lesson as you move through each piece. For example, an understanding of order of operations is needed to figure mortgage payments. After you show the formula, the discussion in class for that day could be on order of operations and discussion what are they or it might be just a short review of a few problems. Remember, you can adjust these lessons as you need them to work in your classroom.