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Mathematics / Year 8 / Number and Algebra / Real numbers

Curriculum content descriptions

Solve a range of problems involving rates and ratios, with and without digital technologies (ACMNA188)

Elaborations
  • understanding that rate and ratio problems can be solved using fractions or percentages and choosing the most efficient form to solve a particular problem
  • calculating population growth rates in Australia and Asia and explaining their difference
General capabilities
  • Literacy Literacy
  • Numeracy Numeracy
  • Critical and creative thinking Critical and creative thinking
  • ICT capability Information and Communication Technology (ICT) capability
ScOT terms

Ratios

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

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.

Text

Mixing Lemonade

This resource is a web page containing an interactive task to explore ratios and proportions. Compare different mixtures of lemonade and develop a strategy for deciding which is stronger each time. The task requires students to apply their understanding of ratio and proportions. A 'Getting started' page, 'Solution' 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.

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

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

Modelling climate changes

There is a saying: 'climate is what you expect and weather is what you get'. |Understanding climate change is very difficult for most people, especially when the weather we experience is different from the information we are given by scientists about the climate changing. The difference is that weather reflects short-term ...

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

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 ...

Video

MathXplosion, Ep 10: What is the strongest shape?

Are triangles really the strongest shapes ever? If so, why? Learn how and why right-angled and equilateral triangles have been used in engineering, architecture and design through the ages.

Online

Secondary mathematics: different representations

These seven learning activities, which focus on 'representations' using a variety of tools (software) and devices (hardware), illustrate the ways in which content, pedagogy and technology can be successfully and effectively integrated in order to promote learning. In the activities, teachers use different representations ...

Interactive

The Mathematical Toolkit

A 2D Shapes tool that can be used to create geometric objects such as quadrilaterals, circles, triangles, lines, arcs, rays, segments and vectors on a coordinate grid. Plot and label the vertices to reveal the internal angles, side lengths, area and perimeter, then manipulate the shapes on a grid to transform their shape ...

Online

Australia's population: countries of birth - dataset

The dataset provides statistics about the estimated resident population, median age and sex ratio by countries of birth for the latest year of available data. It is periodically updated by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). The dataset is included in the list of related datasets on the page in MS Excel format.

Online

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.

Interactive

Examples of Pythagoras' Theorem Part 1

An animated tutorial demonstrating the application of Pythagoras' theorem through some worked examples, followed by a interactive quiz.

Video

Using Pythagoras' Theorem (Simulation)

An interactive simulation in which students use Pythagoras' theorem can be used to find distances.

Interactive

Examples of Pythagoras' Theorem Part 2

An animated tutorial demonstrating the application of Pythagoras' theorem through some worked examples, followed by a interactive quiz.

Downloadable

The wide wide world of sports betting

This lesson explores the difference between perfectly predictable events (like the roll of a die) and less certain events (such as sports). Students investigate mathematically how sports bookmakers create odds to guarantee themselves a profit and pay gamblers less for a win than they deserve. The lesson is outlined in ...