Experiences

Gross, net, tare, quantity, value, price

Bogumiła Szukalska

Poland

Primary school

Maths

Teaching in class

Direct

I am a teacher of mathematics in primary school, but at the same time I conduct individual classes with students from lower secondary school. It is difficult to understand the relationship between the units used in practice, if we don’t experience it, therefore I allow students for self- testing, so that they can freely refer to the different types of terms which they may encounter in everyday life as well as when solving mathematical tasks. Such dependencies can be analyzed when shopping at grocery. At the store we can find out in what units we buy a product, what is the relationship between quality, price, value, and terms of gross, net, tare. For this purpose we visit the supermarket. Visit is preceded by a talk on what the children have to pay attention. What items are we to buy and in what packages? What is the economic shopping? Is the ad consistent with the reality and whether the purchase of special offer is more economical? At the lesson we discuss thoroughly products of our interest basing on newspaper advertising of supermarket, where we make a visit. Students receive timesheets prepared by me so they can get all the information we need during the visit. They have enough time to check every doubt and to find the necessary information, to ask about the things they cannot see. Summary of the visit involves completing timesheets and finding answers to all the questions, enabling for solving problems related to everyday life economy issues. After extensive research carried out by children and meticulous discussion of all the questions posed, children can easily start solving theoretical tasks.