Turkey Math

The Friday before Thanksgiving break we did a reflective activity called "Turkey Math."  Yes, in 7th grade students still like to cut and color.  I had the students write 7 math problems over topics that we have covered this year and put them on the feathers of the turkey.  The students then colored their turkeys and cut them out and put them together.  Here are some pictures.

Week of Nov. 17th

It is hard to believe we are one week away from Thanksgiving Break.  This year is going by so fast.  This week we will finish up our lessons on proportions by discussing Similar Figures.  This does not mean we will no longer use proportions, we will use them all year.  We will have that lesson on Similar Figures Monday.

Similar Figures are figures that meet the following conditions:
- The figures are the same shape but not the same size,
- Corresponding angles must be equal, and
- Most importantly, corresponding sides must be proportional.

Tuesday and Wednesday we will be working through pathways it Think Through Math.

Think Through Math is computer program (website) that personalizes learning for each student.

Thursday and Friday we will be working on some holiday related activities.

Bonus Question of the Week

Evaluate the following expression:

Copy the problem on your paper and solve.  Turn it in by Friday, Nov. 21st for 10 Bonus points.

Week of November 10 - 14

This week we will continue our lessons over proportions by discussing percent of change and similar figures.  There are two types of percent of change, percent of increase and percent of decrease.  Percent of change is found by dividing the amount of change in the situation by the original number.

Example:  Sam's grade during the 1st six weeks was an 85.  The 2nd six weeks he had a 92.  What was the percent of change from the 1st six weeks to the 2nd six weeks?

percent of change = 92 - 85   =     7    =  0.0823... x 100 = 8.2%
                                   85             85

To convert the number to a percent you multiply it by 100.

Wednesday, we will complete a test review for our first test of the 3rd six weeks and finish the week with a Common Assessment over Proportions and Percents.

Bonus Question for the Week

A real estate agent received a commission of $9375 on the sale of a home. If the commission
represents 7 1/2% of the selling price, how much did the house sell for?

Copy the problem, work it, and turn it in by Friday, November 14th for 10 Bonus points.

Percent Proportion

We ended last week by discussing the Percent Proportion.  The percent proportion is a tool you can use for all percent problems.  It is

   %    =   part  
 100       whole

The percent sign, part, and whole are all places where you plug in information from a problem.

There are 3 types of percent problems.  Problems where the % is missing, the part is missing, and the whole amount is missing.  Here are 3 examples:

What is 25% of 80?

20 is what percent of 80?

20 is 25% of what number?

Each of these problems can be solved by using the percent proportion.

Problem 1   25   =    x         Problem 2    x    =   20         Problem 3    25   =   20  
                  100       80                          100       80                           100        x

To solve each problem you cross multiply and divide by the value with the variable.

Problem 1    25   =    x   
                   100       80

                 100 x  =  25 (80)
                 100x  =  2000
                  100        100

                       x = 20

All 3 forms of the percent problems are solved the same way.

Most problems don't look like the examples.  They look more like this one:

The Incredible Chocolate Chip Company has discovered that 36 out of 400
chocolate chip cookies do not contain enough chocolate chips. What percent of
the chocolate chip cookies do not have enough chips?

In this problem we are looking for the percent so it will be like problem 2.

   x    =   36  
 100      400

400x = 3600
400       400

   x = 9%

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