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reSolve: Authentic Problems: Bunches of Balloons

Teacher guide reSolve: Authentic Problems: Bunches of Balloons

TLF ID M024875

This sequence of three lessons introduces division and multiplication through the context of decorating a room with clusters of balloons. Students carry out an inquiry using a variety of processes associated with multiplication and division such as grouping concrete objects, arrays, repeated addition and skip counting. Each lesson is outlined in detail including curriculum links, vocabulary, materials needed, sample answers, discussion points and student resources. This sequence is part of the reSolve: Maths by Inquiry special topic 'Authentic Problems'.

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Educational details

Educational value
  • This resource is extremely valuable for the year 2 mathematics content descriptions about representing multiplication as repeated addition, groups and arrays, representing division as grouping into equal sets and solving simple problems using these representations. Students use a range of different processes and representations in their investigations, including dividing a number into equal parts, grouping into equal sets and representing their balloons using counters in arrays.
  • The resource is also valuable for supporting the Numeracy general capability. The unit provides multiple opportunities for students to model, represent, order and use numbers as they answer their inquiry question.
  • This resource is also of pedagogical value as it supports teachers in building an inquiry-focused learning environment with authentic application of mathematical skills and understandings. The unit uses a learning and teaching model with four phases: Discover, Devise, Develop and Defend. The unit aims to develop content knowledge as well as assisting students to understand the process of inquiry.
Year level

2

Topics Number operations Factors Arrays Financial transactions Division Multiplication Inquiry-based learning Mathematical expressions Repeated addition
Learning area
  • Mathematics

Other details

Contributors
  • Contributor
  • Name: Education Services Australia
  • Organization: Education Services Australia
  • Description: Data manager
  • Address: VIC, AUSTRALIA
  • URL: http://www.esa.edu.au/
  • Copyright Holder
  • Name: Australian Government Department of Education and Training
  • Organization: Australian Government Department of Education and Training
  • Publisher
  • Name: Australian Academy of Science
  • Organization: Australian Academy of Science
  • Description: Publisher
  • URL: https://www.science.org.au/
  • Resource metadata contributed by
  • Name: Education Services Australia Ltd
  • Organisation: Education Services Australia Ltd
  • Address: AUSTRALIA
  • URL: www.esa.edu.au
Access profile
  • Unknown
Learning Resource Type
  • Online
Rights
  • © Australian Government Department of Education and Training 2018. Unless otherwise indicated, this material may be used in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.