Ratio, Rate and Percent, Week 6

Hi Everyone,

This week was dedicated to exploring and discussing ratio, rate and percent. As you will begin to see, many weekly topics covered in this mathematics course have real-world application. This one is no different. This topic can be extremely fun once it is fully understood!

Within the Small textbook, there are many useful activities for teaching ratio, rate, and percent to students. This chapter emphasizes the importance of reading symbols meaningfully when teaching this topic to your students. A mix of grid and non grid examples should be utilized so students get a sense of how percents, ratios and rates are all associated with various fractions of amounts (Small, 2013: 314).  It is also important to keep in mind that there are not always the best approach to solving certain solutions; it is important to give students the freedom to set up the solution strategy in whatever way makes the most sense to them.

That being stated, in the Junior and Intermediate level of math, students are expected to be able to build off of their preexisting knowledge, create and expand. The ratio, rate and percent topic falls within the number sense and numeration sections of the Curriculum, where students will be expected to represent, compare, and order numbers including integers by the time they are in Grade 7. They will also need to demonstrate an understanding of proportional relationships using percent, ratio and rate, expanding off of the preexisting knowledge of math in the Junior math level.

Every week, I try to continue building math game knowledge as a way to increase student's level of engagement. This week I discovered two really fun math games on the Math Playground Website. The first game is Math at the Mall. In this game, you select a player and have to walk around a virtual mall to complete math tasks. Upon successful completion of the math tasks at each store in the mall, the player receives a gold coin. The object of the game is to receive a total of four gold coins. While this game is not a high-paced game that involves competing with other players, I find this to work to its advantage. Students are able to take all the time they need to successfully and correctly complete the math problems posed, and when they are finished they are rewarded with gold coins. This game incorporates ratio and percent and successfully supports Grades 5 and 6 levels of the Math Curriculum. 

The second game is Ratio Stadium. In this game, it gives you a rate which you need to convert to the correct fraction in order to win against the other players. This game is great and supports Grades 6 and 7 levels of the Math Curriculum, specifically in regards to ratios and proportional relationships.

I hope these expectations and games I have listed in this post help all of those who read it! If you have any questions or comments feel free to post them below.

References 
Ontario. (2005). The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 1-8. (6th Ed). Toronto: Ontario, Ministry of Education. 
Small, M. (2013). Chapter 13: Ratio, Rate, and Percent. In Making Math Meaningful to Canadian Students, K-8. (2nd Ed.) Nelson Education. Toronto: Canada.