Help me give my students a real life example of systems of equation through candy weight and their mystery bag.
FULLY FUNDED! Ms. Anthony's classroom raised $284
This project is fully funded
My Project
When am I ever going to use this in real life? That is the question I get as a math teacher on a daily basis. Because of this, I try to engage my students in a real life example at the end of each unit.
For systems of equations, my students do a Candy Mystery Lab.
This lab is very expensive because the price of candy has gone up exponentially. Each pair of students gets a bag of candy (there are at least 10 different bags so no pair has the same bag in a class). The bag of candy has a label on the outside with the types of candy in the bag, the number of candy in the bag, and a hint. The students are tasked with the problem of finding out how many of each type of candy is in the bag by weighing the candy and using systems of equations to calculate. The students sometimes get the amount of candy wrong. They have to write why they think the equations didn’t work and what went they think happened. We talk about the manufacturers and how, for example, each bag of skittles doesn’t have exactly the same amount as another bag of skittles. We also talk about human error when weighing the candy and the bag. It becomes a great class discussion. I feel like this is a great opportunity for the students to see a real life example of how system of equations could work in the real world.
Nearly all students from low‑income households
Data about students' economic need comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, via our partners at MDR Education. Learn more
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