Real World Ratio and Proportion Level: Secondary --- Content: Mathematics |
Raul Garcia, a secondary school student, needed to take a required first year algebra course that wasn’t being offered in his school this semester. He decided to sign up for a distance-learning course that is offered through his school system. For each unit in this course, he logs on to an Internet site and reads information about an Algebra concept, does practice problems, and then takes a test on his understanding of the concept and ability to apply the concept to real world situations. If he passes the tests for all the units, he will be given credit for the course and will be able to continue on to second year Algebra next semester. He is currently working on a unit on ratio and proportion. He has read about this concept and does some practice problems. He is having some difficulty and wants to practice more before he takes the unit test. He has already done all the skill-building problems in the online environment, so he goes to other sites that have additional problems. Once he feels confident about this concept, he takes the unit test in the online learning environment. As a final step before giving him credit for the online course, Raul’s school requires him to do a final project on some of the concepts covered in the Algebra 1 class and present the project to one of the algebra teachers who will give a final credit for his online class. In this presentation, Raul is expected to demonstrate how he will apply the concepts he has learned to problems in the real world. One of the concepts he illustrates in his presentation is ratio and proportion. He searches the Internet for photographs of real objects such as buildings and bridges and uses these photographs as a context for creating word problems. For example, Raul finds a picture of the Tower Bridge in London taken at water level. This bridge has two tall towers with a high pedestrian walkway. Below the walkway is a road for cars that contains a drawbridge and below the roadway is the water. Raul’s question regarding this photograph is, “If the towers on the bridge are 206 feet tall, what is the tallest ship that can go under the roadway without raising the drawbridge?” In his presentation he explains how one could calculate the answer by measuring the various elements in the photograph and using the height of the real tower and ratio and proportion to get the height of the roadway above water. Raul’s presentation demonstrates to the teacher and the school that he has a good grasp of the algebra concepts and how to apply them. Tools used in this scenario: Skill building: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/maths/number/ratiosrev5.shtml
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