Building Background Math and Business Suits
The purpose of this activity is to examine how an everyday
object can be described in mathematical terms.
1. Bring in
pictures from a clothes catalogue of a man's slacks,
jacket, shirt, and tie.
2. Ask students to think about what
percentage of the outfit's color is the slacks and jacket,
what percentage of its color is the shirt, and what
percentage is the color of the tie.
3. Students' answers
should fall somewhere in the range of 60% for the suit and
slacks, 30% for the shirt, and 10% for the tie. Involve the
students in a discussion about why they think suits are
often designed in this way.
Steps for Learning The
Percentage Challenge
The purpose of this activity
is to provide students with an opportunity to use
percentages to examine a real-world design problem.
1. Ask
students if they think the same 60%-30%-10% formula used in
designing business suits can be transferred to the
decoration of a room.
2. Explain to students that they are
going to use their knowledge of percent to design the
following three rooms:
Room One:
-
60% of a dominant
color
- 30% of a secondary color
- 10% of an accent color
Room Two:
- 75% of a dominant color
- 20% of a
secondary color
- 5% of an accent color
Room
Three:
- 45% of a dominant color
- 35% of a secondary color
-
20% of an accent color
3. Have students draw three
empty rooms for this activity. Make three copies of each
room the students draw. Provide access to the materials
listed in the "Materials" section of this lesson. Have
students paint/decorate the three rooms using the
percentages listed above.
4. After students have finished
decorating their rooms, have them show their rooms to the
rest of the class. Ask the class members to choose which of
the rooms they like the most.
5. Involve students in a
discussion about which rooms students liked the most. Also
discuss how they used percentages to investigate a design
problem.