Activity Introduction
Quick summary: Students use authentic data to answer problems about recycling. They calculate and use percentages to compare rates of recycling and environmental benefits. They do a quick survey and calculate percentages to help them to analyse their data.
This lesson has been developed as part of the Schools Recycle Right Challenge for Planet Ark’s National Recycling Week. Register your lesson or other activities so they can be counted towards the national achievement and to receive other free support materials.
Learning goals for this activity include: Calculate and apply percentages to data to help to analyse the data and answer mathematical questions. Demonstrate how mathematics is used to understand environmental issues.
Australian Curriculum content descriptions:
Year 7 Mathematics:
- Find percentages of quantities and express one quantity as a percentage of another, with and without digital technologies (ACMNA158)
- Connect fractions, decimals and percentages and carry out simple conversions (ACMNA157)
Time needed: 50 min
Level of teacher scaffolding: Medium – keep an eye out for those students who get confused about calculating percentages.
Resources needed: Scrap paper, access to a spreadsheet application that can produce pie graphs.
Digital technology opportunities: Convert a table of data into a pie graph using Excel.
Assumed prior learning: Have had an introduction to percentages, have an understanding of ratios, familiar with a spreadsheet program.
Key words: Percentage, ratio, weight, greenhouse gases, energy, recycling
Cool Australia’s curriculum team continually reviews and refines our resources to be in line with changes to the Australian Curriculum.
These Planet Ark resources were developed by Cool Australia with funding from the Alcoa Foundation.
Teacher preparation