Come Dine with Maths!

I love teaching Maths. More than any other subject, learning is tangible - you can so often do something by the end of the lesson that you couldn't at the beginning. I have a real drive at the moment to give children the chance to apply their Maths in real-life contexts. I don't mean giving them word problems describing real-life situations, but actually doing a practical activity . 

So, here's Friday's challenge: 

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come_dine_with_me.docx
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I gave each pair an iPad and showed them some recipe and grocery shopping websites. We chatted a little about what we would need to find out and then off they went! Asda & Ocado were great, because you can add to your online basket without registering. 

I like real-life, open-ended tasks like this one. There are so many directions to take it in - cost per person, scheduling the timings of the preparation and dinner, using ratio to calculate how much they would need for their guests. As I went around the classroom, I could guide and challenge each pair appropriately, letting their learning be guided by their experience on the day and questions they raised. While they may never be contestants on Come Dine With Me, they will inevitably have to budget, plan meals and do their grocery shopping at some point in their lives. 

I've started making a note in the back of my diary every time I use Maths in my life. I'm quickly building a bank of lesson ideas that can be stretched, differentiated and explored in a multitude of ways: planning a trip (timetables, costs, data analysis of how popular a place is), sorting out bills & energy savings, buying Christmas gifts & calculating how much gift-wrap to buy & the net of the boxes... the list goes on and on!