I promised you a portfolio celebration and was thinking about a pizza party. I would like to figure out what it would cost. How much pizza would 16 math students eat? What toppings would you choose? Please help me figure this out! Make sure your solution is easy for me to understand! Here are the facts: If I order the pizza from Jay's Pizzeria it costs $12.95 for a small pizza with 6 slices and $13.95 for a large pizza with 8 slices. Extra toppings for a small pizza cost $1.25 each and for a large pizza they are $1.45 each. How many pizzas should I order? How many pieces will everybody get? Will everybody eat the same amount? What kind of pizzas should we order? How much will this cost? Let's see if it is affordable!
The students in my math class were in charge of figuring out how much money it would cost for a pizza party and how much pizza we needed to order. This party planning was for a real celebration we were having in honor of completing our yearly portfolios and sending them into the state to be assessed as part of the Vermont state assessment program. This task allows the children to see how complicated seemingly simple things can be! The open-ended nature of the task made it so that children had to make a lot of decisions: How many pieces each person would/could have, what toppings would be ordered, how much of each pizza, what to do with the outliers in their data and more. Most students chose to work with a partner and create a short survey. They collected data about favorite types of pizza and how many pieces would be eaten. Then using division and fractions, children began to figure out different solutions to the problem. 3 hours Two, 45-minute periods for data collection Two, 45-minute periods for solutions and recommendations I was surprised by the amount of time it took my kids to collect data about pizza… I think this had something to do with their excitement and enthusiasm with the task. There is a large amount of math in this situation. It seemed natural to the students that there were many possible solutions and not just one answer. In this particular task, children investigated the price of pizza at other local establishments and made suggestions accordingly. This problem could be linked with any kind of nutrition unit on food studies linked with different cultures and countries. The problem could also be easily adapted to cover many things, not just food. Make sure that if you do a problem of this sort that the children understand all the information that is needed, (i.e. pizza toppings, different sizes, etc.) and that the tasks is meaningful for the children.
- Graph paper
- Calculators (optional)
Solutions will vary. There are several things the students had to account for when solving this task:
- Was there a limit on the number of pieces of pizza each person could have?
- Was it important that everyone got an equal amount?
- How many different types of pizza would be bought?
- How were these decisions made?
- What would be done with outliers in the data collected?
This student did not understand that the data collection information should be used to come up with a mathematical solution. In fact when questioned, s/he described the data collection as fun and interesting, that was why it was done... out of curiosity.
This student understood many parts of the problem, but not all. S/he did not account for the added cost of pepperoni topping. This student also did not acknowledge the fact other than in data collection that some people wanted two to three pieces of pizza. However, in the final solution, if people ate the maximum amount they said they would, there would not be enough pizza.
This solution shows that the student understood the concepts necessary for solving this problem. Although the work is not detailed, it is clear what s/he did to reach a solution.
This student has a very direct approach to solving the problem. This student was the only one who seemed to really think about the problem before jumping into a solution. His/her solution is direct, clear and appropriate.
|
