Mathematics / Year 8 / Measurement

Curriculum content descriptions

recognise and use rates to solve problems involving the comparison of 2 related quantities of different units of measure (AC9M8M05)

Elaborations
  • identifying examples of rates in the real world, including constant rates, rate of pay, cost per kilogram, recipes, simple interest and average rates
  • applying rates to solve problems involving the conversion between different units of measure; for example, using a conversion rate to convert distances from miles into kilometres; using currency exchange rates to determine the price of items
  • applying rates to calculate solutions to problems in different contexts; for example, required run rates in cricket, dilution of concentrated chemicals and comparing the petrol consumption rates of different vehicles
  • using taxation tables to calculate an individuals annual income tax
  • investigating the application of rates in First Nation Australians’ land management practices, including the rate of fire spread under different environmental conditions such as fuel types, wind speed, temperature and relative humidity; the conservation of water by First Nations Australians by estimating rates of water evaporation based on surface area and climatic conditions
General capabilities
  • Numeracy Numeracy
ScOT terms

Rates (Ratios),  Metres per second

Video

My Five Cents: Why borrowing can cost you more

Think credit cards are basically free money? Gen Fricker will make you think again. Learn how interest rates and fees affect the money you borrow, and why they may be more expensive in the long run. Oh dear! Then test yourself with ASIC MoneySmart's "Things to think about" classroom exercises.  

Video

Comparing fuel consumption

Is it more fuel efficient to drive or fly between two places? Watch this clip and learn how to calculate the answer. What are the various factors that need to be taken into account? This video was made using the American measurement of gallons per hour, American firgures for the average number of passengers in a car and ...

Video

Are plants mathematicians?

Ever noticed that plants are examples of Fibonacci numbers? Watch Vi Hart draw examples of flower petals and leaf growth that follow this pattern. See how plants seem to use Phi (.), the golden ratio. Find out how to make your own 'angle-a-tron' to create interesting petal designs. This is the second in a series of two.

Interactive

Syllabus Bites: Revisiting proportion

This is the first in a series of Syllabus Bites related to direct and indirect proportion. Students revise the concept of ratio. They create short visual explanations showing how problems can be solved.

Video

Catalyst: Take the Phi Golden challenge

The golden ratio, Phi: fact or fallacy? What about the Fibonacci sequence? We are told this ratio and its cousin Fibonacci occur everywhere in nature. Let's see which of these claims stacks up when put to the test.

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TIMES Module 21: Number and Algebra: rates and ratios - teacher guide

This is a 17-page guide for teachers. This module introduces the idea of ratios and rates. Ratios are used to compare two quantities. The emphasis is usually on comparing parts of the whole. Rates are a measure of how one quantity changes for every unit of another quantity. It relates the ideas of ratios, gradient and fractions.

Video

Using maths to understand the universe

When completed, the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project will be the largest and most capable radio telescope available to scientists. Radio telescopes like the SKA detect radio waves produced by events and objects in the furthest reaches of space, translating these waves into data and imagery that allow scientists to study ...

Interactive

Renovate, Calculate!

A student resource that explores the use of mathematics in the trades. Highly interactive investigations into ratio, areas of special quadrilaterals and right-angled trigonometry.

Video

Catalyst: Nautical Robots

How might you find out how much and where the Earth's oceans are warming? Watch the report by Ruben Meerman and discover how more than 3000 'nautical robots', known as argo floats, have been placed in the oceans to collect data on variations in temperature, pressure and salinity.

Video

Proportional reasoning video

Use this video as a springboard to explore scaling or proportional thinking, and to apply that thinking in a food context, drawing on reasoning and mathematical modelling.

Video

MathXplosion, Ep 50: How to use a tetrahedron to solve the tree problem

How can you place four trees exactly the same distance apart from one other? By making a model! By using miniature trees to make a model of the problem, it becomes clear that a 2D solution is impossible. We learn how objects can help us visualise the problem situation, which in this case requires a 3D solution: a tetrahedron.

Video

Mystery man Pythagoras meets his match

What do you know about Pythagoras? Join Vi Hart as she not only explains his theorem but raises some legends about his dark past! Follow Vi's timeline of famous mathematicians to find out in which century Pythagoras lived. See how Vi shows a proof of his theorem and raises what was a big dilemma for Pythagoras: the irrational ...

Video

Maths inside bees and beehives

Bees are necessary for assisting many plants to produce the food we eat, including meat and milk. Colony collapse disorder, which describes the disappearance of beehives, could have catastrophic effects on food production. Australian scientists are applying their maths and science knowledge to build up a picture of a healthy ...

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TIMES Module 17: Measurement and Geometry: the circle - teacher guide

This is a 15-page guide for teachers. In the module the formulas for finding the circumference and area of a circle are introduced. The history and significance of the number pi is also included in this module.

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Circles

This is a website designed for both teachers and students that refers to the properties of circles including the circumference and area from the Australian Curriculum for year 8 students. It contains material on finding circumferences and areas of circles, and the areas and perimeters of shapes formed from circles and other ...

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TIMES Module 11: Measurement and Geometry: area, volume and surface area - teacher guide

This is a 15-page guide for teachers containing explanations of the derivation of formulas for the areas of parallelograms, trapeziums, rhombuses and kites. Formulas for the volumes and surface areas of prisms and cylinders are obtained. Applications of these formulas are given. A history of the development of these concepts ...

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Sandcastle ratios

In this lesson students think like geotechnical engineers, exploring the properties of sand and the ways in which those properties can be used in building and construction.

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TIMES Module 17: Number and Algebra: the unitary method - teacher guide

This is an 18-page guide for teachers. This module introduces the idea of ratios and rates.

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TIMES Module 22: Measurement and Geometry: scale drawings and similarity - teacher guide

This is a 41-page guide for teachers. It contains an introduction to scale drawings and similarity, and in particular the tests for triangles to be considered similar. Applications of similarity are included throughout the module.

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Percentages - Calculate

In this unit, let’s look at how percentages are used in everyday life to compare changes in things and measure rates of change.