Middle School Projects That Focus on Percent
Percentage is a tricky concept to grasp for some middle school students, but it is important for people to understand how it works at young age. Grasping percentages will help students in later life in all sorts of ways, like being able to understand bank loans and taxes. A combination of games and real-world applications can help to unlock this topic for students.
-
Communicating the Key Concept
-
The main thing that has to be understood when talking about percent is that it is just another type of fraction. Twenty percent is breaking something into 100 pieces and taking 20 of them. It seems obvious, but younger and less able students find it hard to make this connection. Get some tangible items like Lego blocks, plasticine or large circular pieces of plywood you can cut up into 100 equal slices. Using equal-sized pieces, break your blocks or plywood into 100 pieces and demonstrate that three is three percent and 10 is 10 percent. A visual example should help children understand percentage.
Height Project
-
Students in middle school are growing fast, so you can do a project by having them measure themselves every week and record the data. At the end of the year, look at the amount they have grown. Then figure out by what percent their height has increased from the beginning of the year to the end, and from week to week. You can also compare how students have grown in comparison to each other. This way you can communicate the difference between greatest absolute increase and greatest percentage increase.
-
Applying the Concept to the Real World: Money
-
In most people's lives, money is the most important area where percentage will be involved. Getting students to find and use real data is much better than giving them made-up examples. Get them to find an item for sale which they want or will want to buy. A car is usually a good example. Have them find real offers of bank loans which would pay for the item and have them calculate the interest on the loan and how it will mount over the months. Show them how to work out Value Added Tax, or VAT, the tax added to most things which you buy in the shops. Explain how it can be claimed back and in what circumstances.
Applying the Concept to the Real World: Building and Mapping
-
These are two areas in which people will encounter the problems posed by percentages in relation to physical objects. Using whatever materials available, bricks, wood blocks or Styrofoam, for example, give students a model and have them build a scaled up or down version of it by a certain percentage. Similarly, have students draw a map of the classroom, school building or other area at a certain percentage of actual size. Take the process the other way by giving them a map of something, tables arranged in the classroom are a good example, at some percentage of real size, and have them arrange the tables accordingly in the real world, working out the measurements exactly. Scaling is usually done by ratio, but it is still a good way of communicating ideas of percentage.
-
References
- Photo Credit percent image by Soja Andrzej from Fotolia.com
