In this lesson students will use a consumable manipulative to understand percent, fraction and decimal conversions. They will also collect data on a teacher produced spreadsheet while using a computer generated spreadsheet to make conversions.
The students will use ACC basketball statistics to practice the process of converting fractions to decimals then to percents and will learn how to create and edit a spreadsheet. They will then use this spreadsheet to analyze their data. This unit is done during the basketball season which takes approximately 15 weeks from the middle of November to the middle of March. Teachers must have Clarisworks to open the sample spreadsheet in the lesson, but may recreate it in another spreadsheet program.
This is a good beginning of the year lesson to review fractions, decimals, geometry (the number of degrees in a circle and drawing a circle with a protractor), graphing, and metric measurement. This lesson is a good way for students to meet their peers while working cooperatively in a task-oriented group. The watermelon you will be using for the activity is also a good start-of-the-year treat. Be sure to get an extra watermelon or two to share at the end of the activity.
