Alphabits
Computation and Estimation
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Objective
Students will apply the concept of ratio and percents to the distribution of letters
contained in a box of Alphabits cereal.
Overview of the Lesson
Students list questions of a mathematical nature which could be used as a basis for
investigating the contents of a box of Alphabits cereal. They decide to investigate
the percent of representation of each letter of the alphabet found in a box of
Alphabits. They discover that this investigation could easily lead to finding out
information about some of the other questions they posed. Each student is given a
sample from the cereal box. Students tabulate the number of times each letter of the
alphabet occurs and the total number of letters included in this sample. Using this
information, students form fractions, ratios and compute the percentage of each
different letter of the alphabet found to the total number in the sample. Next, all of
the individual totals are compiled into class totals. Likewise, class totals are used to
form fractions, ratios and percents. Based on their mathematical results, students
make observations and reflect on the process used in the investigations.
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