Percents Continued!

Percents can be used in many ways in our everyday lives.  We have been currently focussing on how taxes relate to taxes and discounts.  Check out our latest notes on this very topic.  Our textbooks are great resources but even they can't be kept as up to date as they should be.  Our textbook was printed in 2008 when GST was 6% so we researched and found the current GST rate is 5%. 

TJ has a couple of great examples on how to calculate taxes and discounts using different methods.

CF has a succinct and clear way of describing how to work with percents while doing percent problems.

KG found some games that relate to percents and discounts - check out her blog post and try them out!

Cereal Box Reflections

We had some time on Tuesday to reflect on our cereal box projects.  Some highlights from a few students were:

"Through the unit project I enjoy it because it was fun making my own cereal box and it was my first time to make one and this project is new for me and i really enjoy it. Figuring out what your measurment are and how are you do an advertisment to show people that your cereal is the best." KR

"This cereal box is just the right height, width and has enough cereal in it for your whole family. It easy to ship because the boxes are small enough to fit in the truck so you don't take alot of trips. It is easy to advertise because the box is big to fit a lot of different advertisments on the box.It is easy display because a lot can fit on the self.
My demensions of my cereal box is 20cm by 26.5cm by 9cm" MS 

"I chose the dimensions I did because it forms a cube with low surface area and a high volume. The dimensions were 17cm by 17cm by 17cm. The surface area came to 1734cm2 and the volume was 4913cm3. My other option of rectangular prism had dimensions of 25cm by 10cm by 20cm. The surface area was 1900cm2 and the volume was 5000cm3. The rectangular prism had a hugh volume bt also a high surface area, while the cube had a high volume and a lower surface area." MO

"i chose the dimensions of my box 10 x 25 x 20,because the volume was greater than the surface area and it was better than other options. in other options i would get the same volume but a greater surface area so this desighn will save money by needing less material." CF

Also, click here for a look at an advertisement example and some calculations that were tried!

Cereal Box Design

I have a few more cereal boxes and written components to come in this week but I thought I would show you just some of the wonderful boxes designed by Math 8A.  All different sizes and one cylinder cereal container coming later this week.  I look forward to reading and sharing a few of the justifications for each design.

Unit Five: Percent, Ratio and Rate

On Friday we were introduced to our fifth unit on percent, ratio and rate.  5.1 is all about relating percents, fractions and decimals.  So far I am very impressed with the ability to work with fractions and powers of 10!  Tomorrow the students will be doing a blog post related to our first section so I will save the summary of learning for them.  Please take a moment to check out the rubric for Outcome N8.2.

The Ultimate Cereal Box - Student Examples

Well we are fresh from February break and wrapping up our unit on Surface Area and Volume.  Today we made our own formula sheets from Page 222 in the textbook (these will be used for our exam) and then began to finish our cereal box designs.  Each student must hand in their calculations, net, cereal box and advertisement by Friday, March 2.  Our unit exam will be Wednesday, February 29th.  There is a Practice Test in the textbook on Page 226 and also a Review on Page 223 for extra questions.  These skills are used often in future math courses!

- M.O and T.J

N.W., J.R., M.C.

The Ultimate Cereal Box

"For years and years you have sat at the breakfast table staring at the same old cereal boxes - always rectangular, always boring.  Have you ever wondered why the cereal companies always put their product in rectangular prisms?  Do you know of a better polyhedron they could use?  Well, here is your chance to do some exploring!"

Each student is responsible for designing a cereal box that has maximum volume with minimum surface area.  They must defend their design from multiple perspectives and then construct it!  They will also be responsible for designing the cover of their cereal box as well as creating an advertisement to promote all that they have to offer. 

Here is a copy of the assignment.
Here is a copy of the rubrics for assessment: Volume and Surface Area

New Semester!

Welcome back to a brand new semester and a few changes to the schedule.  Our geometry unit has carried over from Semester #1 and we hope to finish it by February break.  We have been working very hard on surface area and volume of rectangular prisms, triangular prisms and cylinders:

M.O. has summarized some key points very well on her blog.  She also found a volume game sure to help out with rectangular prisms!

K.G. found a website that lists the important formulas.

K.R. linked to a youtube video tutorial that helps you to find the volume of a cylinder.

We are going to be doing a project next week that involves surface area and volume so stay tuned for that!