TASKS
Gwen Stefani Itinerary------2
Meeting in Toronto------3
Designing a New School------4
2004 Summer Olympics Results------6
2006 Winter Olympics Results------8
The School Calendar------9
Playland Adventure------10
Nine Hole Golf Course------12
Terry Fox Fundraiser------14
Fair Teams------15
Basketball Tournament------17
Shopping Spree------19
The Two-Bike Race------21
Celebrity Travel Planning------23
The New Publishing Room------25
Cell Phone Plans------27
Giving Out Bonuses------28
Ski Trip Fundraiser------29
Race Around the World------30
Numeracy Definitions------32
Numeracy from Around the World------33
Types of Numeracy Tasks------35
Components of Numeracy Tasks------35 1 GWEN STEFANI ITINERARY
You are Special Events Coordinator for 94.3 The Max radio station. Gwen Stefani is coming to Prince George to do a concert and you have to coordinate her stay in town. Your task is to make an itemized itinerary of her 24 hour stay and submit it for her approval.
This itinerary MUST include meals, transportation, accommodation, as well as the following: airport pick-up 3:00 pm Friday airport drop-off 3:00 Saturday concert 8-11 pm Friday dinner with 2 radio station winners (1 hr. on Friday) sound check (1 hr.) radio interview (30 min.) minimum 8 hrs. sleep brunch on Saturday
The itinerary may also include any of the following optional activities (based on research of how she spent her time in Toronto & Vancouver): spa (2 hr.) casino (1-3 hr.) yoga (1 hr.) gym (1 hr.) dog-walking trails (1 – 2 hrs.) driving range for golf
Your itinerary will be submitted to Gwen for her approval. Gwen has never been to Prince George before, so you need to not only present your itinerary in a clear manner but you also need to justify your choices.
2 MEETING IN TORONTO
You have a 5:00 p.m. meeting in downtown Toronto on Thursday. What time do you need to leave your house in ______to get to the meeting on time?
There are flights that leaves ______for Pearson Airport in Toronto at:
6:00 8:20 9:00 10:10 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 14:30 16:00 17:30 22:45 23:45
3 DESIGNING A NEW SCHOOL
Prince George is getting a new 11000 m2 middle school. It is going to be built on a lot (200 m x 130 m) just outside of town. Besides the school, there will also be an all-weather soccer field (100m x 75m), two tennis courts (each 15m x 27.5m), and a 30 car parking lot on the grounds.
The following requirements must be met: all fields, courts, buildings, and parking lots must be no closer than 12.5m to any of the property lines. any left over property will be used as green space – grass, trees, shrubs. good use of green space is an important part of making the school grounds attractive.
To help you with your design and layout you have been provided with a scaled map of the property (every square is 10m x 10m). Present your final design on a copy of this map. Label all structures and shade the green space.
4 5 2004 SUMMER OLYMPIC RESULTS
Please decide on a strategy for ranking the following countries from 1 – 20, with 1 being the best.
GOLD SILVER BRONZE Australia 17 16 16 Brazil 5 2 3 China 32 17 14 Cuba 9 7 11 France 11 9 13 Germany 13 16 20 Great Britain 9 9 12 Greece 6 6 4 Hungary 8 6 3 Italy 10 11 11 Japan 16 9 12 Korea 9 12 9 Netherlands 4 9 9 Norway 5 0 1 Romania 8 5 6 Russia 27 27 38 Spain 3 11 5 Sweden 4 2 1 Ukraine 9 5 9 United States 36 39 27
What was your strategy? Did it work for all the countries or did you have to modify it as you went?
6 2004 SUMMER OLYMPIC RESULTS
Now use your same strategy to rank the following countries from 1 – 10?
GOLD SILVER BRONZE Austria 2 4 1 Belarus 2 6 7 Canada 3 6 3 Ethiopia 2 3 2 Iran 2 2 2 New Zealand 3 2 0 Poland 3 2 5 Slovakia 2 2 2 Thailand 3 1 4 Turkey 3 3 4
Did your strategy work this time, or did you have to make changes? Do you think you now have a strategy that will always work?
7 2006 WINTER OLYMPIC RESULTS
Traditionally the final standings to determine the winning country at the Olympics are determined by the total number of medals won by each country. Many countries believe that this is not a FAIR system, and believe that a better way should be developed. Please decide on a NEW strategy for ranking the following countries from 1 – 12, with 1 being the best.
The following list represents the order of results from the 2006 Winter Olympics, held in Turin, Italy. The information in columns 6 and 7 may help develop a better ranking system. Keep in mind that ties are not allowed so you will have to have tie-breakers built into your system.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 GOLD SILVER BRONZE Total # of athletes Population of Medals at the games the country Germany 11 12 6 29 164 82,422,299 United States 9 9 7 25 211 298,444,215 Canada 7 10 7 24 196 32,654,500 Russia 8 6 8 22 178 142,893,540 Norway 2 8 9 19 81 4,610,820 Sweden 7 2 5 14 112 9,016,596 Switzerland 5 4 5 14 143 7,523,934 China 2 4 5 11 78 1,313,973,713 Italy 5 0 6 11 184 58,133,509 Korea 6 3 2 11 40 70,305,000 France 3 2 4 9 89 60,876,136 Australia 1 0 1 2 40 20,264,082
Your presentation to the International Olympic Committee must:
. Represent your rankings.
. Explain why you ranked the countries the way you did and what information you
considered.
. Explain how you account for ties.
. Explain how your system is more FAIR than the system currently in place.
8 THE SCHOOL CALENDAR
You have been contracted by School District #57 to design a calendar for the 2009-2010 school year. For this project you will need to:
Calculate the total number of minutes/days in a school year. Include a proposed calendar. Justify why your calendar is the best option. Identify any foreseeable problems with your calendar.
9 PLAYLAND ADVENTURE
Your class is going on a field trip to Playland this spring. Before you go, your teacher has asked you to design two or three different theme packages. Each theme package will be made up of different rides that will appeal to a variety of students. Each student in the class will choose one of these theme packages for the field trip, so make them enjoyable for the variety of students that are in your class. Your class will arrive at the gates at 11:00 am, and will return to the buses at 2:00 pm. You need to determine which rides are in each package, as well as the order in which the rides will be taken. You have a maximum of 50 tickets to use in each ride combo.
When you are designing the theme packages, you should consider the following: ride location (use the map) cost of each ride in tickets duration of both the ride and the line-up transition time between rides (minimum of 1 minute to a maximum of 5 minutes) – make reasonable estimates other things you may have to budget time for the total time on the field trip
You will be asked to explain your reasoning for how you selected the various rides for each theme package, as well as which package you would choose for yourself.
Cost of Ride Ride Duration Line-up Ride Name in Tickets (minutes) Duration 1. Hell’s Gate 5 3 10 2. Revelation 20 5 10 3. Corkscrew 7 1 20 4. Drop Zone 20 5 10 5. Wooden Roller Coaster 7 2 30 6. Climbing Wall 2 10 15 7. Mini Golf 2 30 3 8. Wave Swinger 4 3 6 9. Crazy Beach Party 5 3 6 10. Flume (Log Ride) 6 4 40 11. Ferris Wheel 2 15 5 12. Hellevator 5 1 20 13. Enterprise 4 4 4 14. Breakdance 4 4 4 15. Bumper Cars 3 3 13 16. Wild Mouse 5 2 10 17. Pirate Ship 4 3 8 18. Music Express 4 5 5 19. Haunted House 3 10 2 20. Scrambler 4 3 3
10 11 NINE HOLE GOLF COURSE
Prince George is getting a new 9-hole golf course, which is going to be built on a treed lot just outside of town. Your task is to come up with a layout for the golf course.
Here are a few things that the owners of the golf course would like you to keep in mind:
must be two par-3 holes, five par-4 holes, and two par-5 holes a par-3 must be between 150 and 200 metres in length a par-4 must be between 250 and 400 metres in length a par-5 must be between 400 and 500 metres in length and must have a bend in it all fairways are between 75 and 100 metres wide must start and finish in the same place can never be two par-3 holes or two par-5 holes in a row pond in the middle of the property that you need to work around must include a clubhouse and a parking lot
To help you with your design and layout you have been provided with a scaled map of the property (every square is 50m x 50m). Present your final design on a copy of this map. number the holes indicate tee boxes with the letter T indicate greens with the letter G indicate trees that are going to be left with the letter X
12 13 TERRY FOX FUNDRAISER
Last month your principal announced the annual Terry Fox Run and promised to provide a pizza lunch to the most deserving class. There were two ways to raise money for this event:
Pledges – This form of fundraising required students to go door to door and get written promises (called pledges) from neighbours to donate a certain amount of money per kilometre that the student will run (for example: $1.00 per kilometre). After the run the student needed to go back to these neighbours to collect the money.
Parent Donations – If students did not want to go to the trouble of seeking pledges they could simply have asked their parents for a donation. These donations had nothing to do with the Run in that they were not based on how far the students ran.
The Run was last week, the pledges and donations were collected, and the results were just announced AND for the first time in school history there is a tie … AND not only is it a tie, but it is a three way tie.
Class A has 24 students and they collected $290 in donations and $20 in pledges.
Class B has 28 students and they collected $150 in donations and $160 in pledges.
Class C has 30 students and collected $35 in donations and $275 in pledges.
The principal can only afford to give pizza lunch to one class.
WHICH TEAM SHOULD GET THE PIZZA LUNCH AND WHY?
The principal is an ex-math teacher and is best convinced with mathematical arguments, so explain your decision by giving specific details about how you determined which class is most deserving.
14 FAIR TEAMS
A friend of mine of is planning a floor hockey unit, but she wants to have fair teams and needs your help. She has collected the following information to help you make your decisions.
There are some things she insists on when putting teams together. You must follow these conditions: There must be at least 2 girls per team. Each team must have 6 – 8 players. Each team’s players must have about the same amount of experience. Teams must be balanced and fair. You need to be able to explain your reasons for creating the teams, as well as the system or criteria you used. Use the information given on the chart. Record your team numbers on the chart.
Write a short paragraph to explain how you made up your fair teams. What criteria did you use to make your teams? How did you decide which team each person would be on?
15 Years Years Years Playing Playing Years Playing Organized Intramural Involved in Organized Floor Floor Other Name Hockey Hockey Hockey Sports Team # 1. Ally 2 0 3 5 2. Art 4 2 5 4 3. Bob 3 1 5 6 4. Cindy 2 0 3 2 5. Cody 6 0 5 4 6. Don 3 2 2 3 7. Deb 0 0 1 4 8. Dora 5 0 4 1 9. Erin 0 0 0 2 10. Jon 0 1 1 4 11. Jerry 0 0 0 2 12. Harry 4 1 5 3 13. Hilda 2 1 3 7 14. Kora 5 2 3 6 15. Kenny 3 1 2 4 16. Larry 4 1 1 6 17. Linda 0 0 1 1 18. Lou-ella 0 0 1 2 19. Mandy 6 2 5 2 20. Nancy 0 0 0 1 21. Ned 0 0 0 3 22. Paul 7 2 5 3 23. Peter 4 3 3 2 24. Rob 0 1 1 4 25. Rita 0 1 1 3 26. Rick 2 0 0 5 27. Randy 1 0 0 4 28. Sharon 0 0 1 3 29. Zach 4 0 3 6
16 BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT
You are organizing a basketball tournament for 8 teams. You may organize it in any way you wish. At the end of the tournament prizes will be awarded for 1st place, 2nd place and 3rd place.
How will you organize the competition so that the prizes are awarded to the correct teams?
Explain your answer by giving specific details about how your tournament schedule will ensure that 1st place is awarded to the best team, 2nd place is awarded to the 2nd best team, and 3rd place is awarded to the 3rd best team.
17 TROUBLE AT THE TOURNAMENT
You are hosting a Grade 8 Basketball Tournament. There are two courts for you to use. Eight teams are invited to the tournament and are scheduled to play 3 games each. The top 4 teams advance to the playoffs.
On tournament day one team calls and tells you that their bus has broken down and they cannot make it. You have only 30 minutes to reorganize the tournament. How do you reorganize the schedule and determine the top 4 teams that will advance to the playoffs?
18 SHOPPING SPREE – Day 1
You have just won a shopping spree at the new George’s Corner shopping mall. You will not be told exactly how big the shopping spree is, but you can be sure that it is between $1000 and $5000. It is a not a big mall, but it does have some popular stores:
Future Shop www.futureshop.ca EB Games www.ebgames.ca The Garage www. garage.ca Aldo www.aldoshoes.com HMV www.hmv.ca Sportchek www.sportchek.ca West49 www.west49.com
The rules of the shopping spree are simple.
1. You cannot go over your awarded dollar amount.
2. You cannot spend more than 40% of your money in any one store.
3. One day special – this is a tax free day!
4. Any unspent money is forfeited.
5. If you have less than $25 left at the end of the spree you get a $1000 bonus which will
be awarded after the shopping spree in the form of a gift card.
6. You may not purchase the same item more than once.
7. Gift cards are not available for purchase.
Use the above websites to plan for tomorrow's spree.
19
SHOPPING SPREE – Day 2
Your shopping spree award is $2500.
Use the information you have accumulated to create your shopping list.
Include the item and price.
Indicate whether or not you have earned the bonus.
Answer the following question:
During your research, what kind of things did you do to help you get to within
$25.00 of your total amount?
Happy Shopping!
20 THE TWO-BIKE RACE
You have entered into a two-bike race from UNBC to Otway through the Greenway trail system of Cranbrook Hill. The race will require that you pick your own route from START to FINISH, and that you race on both roads and trails. As such, you must have two bikes for the race – a road bike and a mountain bike. However, you have no race support, so you will have to pick the bike you want to start with, and then leave your second bike at a checkpoint somewhere on your chosen race route.
You have been training for this race on both your mountain bike and your road bike and you know that:
on your road bike you can travel 26 km/h on roads and11 km/h on trails. on your mountain bike you can travel 21 km/h on roads and 16 km/h on trails.
Determine what route you want to follow, which bike you want to start with, and at which checkpoint (indicated with letters B – T) on your chosen route you will leave your second bike. YOUR GOAL IS TO HAVE THE FASTEST TIME POSSIBLE.
To help you with this decision you have been provided with the following checkpoint map (see over for larger copy).
UNBC 5.5 km B trails 4.8 km 7.2 km roads C D 6.5 km 7.8 km 5.9 km 6.1 km 8.2 km F 9.6 km 10.3 km H E 7.6 km 4.0 km 10.5 km G 5.9 km 8.8 km 6.1 km 10.0 km K 9.3 km 6.1 km
N P I 6.6 km 4.0 km 9.6 km 6.2 km L M
9.0 km 12.0 km 8.1 km 5.1 km 6.3 km 15.0 km J Q 9.8 km O 6.2 km 6.2 km 5.1 km T
9.5 km 5.1 km R 6.2 km S
OTWAY
21 UNBC 5.5 km B roads 4.8 km 7.2 km trails C D 6.5 km 7.8 km 5.9 km 6.1 km 8.2 km F 9.6 km 10.3 km H E 7.6 km 4.0 km 10.5 km G 5.9 km 8.8 km 6.1 km 10.0 km K 9.3 km 6.1 km N P I 6.6 km 4.0 km 9.6 km 6.2 km L M
9.0 km 12.0 km 8.1 km 5.1 km 6.3 km J 15.0 km Q 9.8 km O 6.2 km 6.2 km 5.1 km T
9.5 km 5.1 km R 6.2 km S
OTWAY
22 CELEBRITY TRAVEL PLANNING
You are the personal assistant of ______, the latest teen celebrity to come out of Canada. Right now, you and your celebrity are on a private jet bound for Wintersburg, Ontario (due to land at 9:00 a.m.) to do some promotional visits and to earn some money for charities. Your job is to create a schedule of visits that will allow your celebrity to earn as much money as possible and to be back on the plane by 4:00 p.m. for your flight home. To help you with this task you have been provided with some local information (see other side). This information includes a payment chart listing the possible locations to visit and how much each of these locations will contribute to charity for your celebrity’s time. Also included is a rough map of where these locations are with some of the travel times between key locations indicated.
Some things to keep in mind while planning the day’s schedule:
1. The plane leaves at 4:00 p.m. sharp. You cannot be late!
2. Your celebrity will require a 30 min. lunch break at some point in the day.
3. Not all of the driving times between locations are provided. This does not mean that there are no roads between these locations … only that the travel time is not known.
4. You may visit any location as many times as you wish or stay for as long as you wish, but you only get paid for a single visit for the time indicated on the payment chart.
. The only exception is the Shopping Mall, which will pay $440 for every 30 min. the celebrity is on site.
5. There are two locations on the map which have no dollar amounts associated with them – the airport and city centre. Neither of these locations will pay money for your celebrity’s visit. The airport is included because this is where you will start and finish the day. The city centre is included because many roads pass through this part of Wintersburg.
23 PAYMENT CHART
Location Length of Visit Fee Earned for Charity Radio station 1 hour 10 minutes $1400 Car dealership ¾ hour $500 Military base 10 minutes $75 Record store 30 minutes $926 Convention centre 1 hour $200 Shopping mall Unlimited $440 / 30 minutes TV station 35 minutes $700 Hotel 15 minutes $226
ROUGH MAP
AIRPORT SHOPPING MALL 35 min. 25 min. 25 min. CITY CENTRE HOTEL 35 min. 45 min. 10 min. RADIO STATION 25 min. CAR DEALERSHIP 70 min. 20 min. 20 min. 10 min. TV STATION CONVENTION 30 min. CENTRE
2 25 min. 40 min. MILITARY BASE 55 min.
RECORD STORE
Explain why your schedule is the best plan for your celebrity’s day.
24 THE NEW PUBLISHING ROOM
The school has just found an unused storage room that they want to convert into a new publishing room for the yearbook committee to work in. There are three options for how to purchase flooring for this room:
Square Tiles – each tile is 20 cm x 20 cm and costs $28 for a box of 20 tiles. Individual tiles can also be bought for $2 a piece. Unused tiles cannot be returned.
Rectangular Panels – each panel is 20 cm x 60 cm and costs $33 for a box of 8 panels. They cannot be purchased in individual panels and unused panels cannot be returned.
Sheets – each sheet is 1 m x 2 m and costs $50 each. The sheets are sold individually and unused sheets cannot be returned.
Cost is an issue! Your task is twofold:
a) Determine which floor costs less.
b) Prove to the principal that your choice is the best possible solution (costs less than any other proposal).
25 26 CELL PHONE PLANS
Your parents have agreed to buy you a cell phone. The deal is, however, that you have to pay for the cell phone plan out of your own pocket. There are three plans to choose from:
PAY AS YOU GO
This truly is “pay as you go”. Phone calls are $.25 a minute and text messages are $.15 for each message sent.
BASIC PLAN
This plan is $20.00 per month. This includes 100 free minutes of “anytime” talk time. If you use more than 100 minutes, then you will be charged $.30 per minute for every minute over. Text messages are $.15 for each message tent.
EASY 4 U PLAN
This plan is $50.00 per month. This includes 200 weekday minutes and unlimited weekend minutes of talk time. Each additional minute is $.35. The first 100 text messages sent are free. Anything above that is $.25 for each message sent.
Show all work you carry out to arrive at your decision.
Write an explanation that will convince your parents that this is the best plan for you.
27 GIVING OUT BONUSES
You are the manager of the Text-n-Talk Cell Phone Company that employs a number of independent sales people to sell their phones seven days a week. These sales people work as much or as little as they want. As a sales manager you don't care how much they work, but you do care how much they sell. To motivate them to sell more, you give out bonuses based on how productive they have been.
There are two bonus plans: the top producing individual receives $500. the top producing team shares $500 in a fair manner.
However, there are also two problems: different people have different ways of reporting their productivity. the individual sales teams don't have the same number of people on them.
Based on the information provided in the table below, who should get the bonuses this month, and how much do you think they should get? Justify your answers in writing.
Sales Team Sales Reported for the Month of April (30 days) Person Tysen A 300 cell phones sold this month Peter B An average of 56 cell phones sold every 5 days Lewis A An average of 10 1/3 cell phones sold each day Ainsley A 598 cell phones sold in the last 60 days Avery A An average of 98¾ cell phones sold every 10 days Jennifer B An average of 11 4/15 cell phones sold each day Steven B An average of 55 cell phones each week Gabrielle C 4113 cell phone sold in the last year Diana C An average of 10.05 cell phones each day Matthew D An average of 10.87 cell phones each day Alexa D An average of 9 1/6 cell phones each day Jasmine C 267 cell phones this month
28 Ski Trip Fundraiser
The grade eight ski club is going to Grouse Mountain. Each person tried their best to raise money for their trip. Below is a chart that shows how much money each person raised, and their individual cost, depending on whether they need rentals or lessons.
Determine whether they have raised enough money for their trip. What would be a fair way to share the money that was fundraised among the people listed below? All of the money raised must be applied to the cost of the trip, and every person must go on the trip, even if it means that they may have to put in their own money to do it.
Name Amount Rental Life Lesson Raised Cost Ticket Cost Alex 75 20 40 40 Hilary 125 10 40 40 Danica 50 30 40 0 Kevin 10 40 40 40 Jane 25 0 40 0 Ramona 10 0 40 40 Terry 38 30 40 0 Steve 22 40 40 40 Sonia 200 20 40 0 Kate 60 25 40 0
29 Race Around the World
You have just entered a race around the world. The rules of the race are very simple: you must start and finish in Vancouver. you must visit one major city (marked) on each continent except Antarctica. Vancouver does not count as your North American city. Your airline ticket only allows you to travel east. Your goal is to get back to Vancouver in the shortest amount of time.
To help you calculate your time please keep these simple rules in mind: flight paths can be seen as straight lines between cities. 1 cm of travel on the map takes an airplane 2 hours to fly. airplanes depart each city on every even hour local time. That is, they leave at 2:00, 4:00, 6:00, ... the dotted vertical lines on the map are time zones. Every time you cross one of these lines while travelling east you should advance your clock by one hour.
Good luck – and may the best team win.
30 31 "Numeracy can be defined as the combination of mathematical knowledge, problem solving and communication skills required by all persons to function successfully within our technological world." - BCAMT
"Numeracy is the willingness and ability to apply and communicate mathematical understanding and procedures in novel and meaningful problem solving situations."
- SD43 Definition
"Numeracy is not only an awareness that mathematical knowledge and understandings can be used to interpret, communicate, analyze, and solve a variety of novel problem solving situations, but also a willingness and ability to do so." - SD 57 Definition
NUMERACY IS MATH IN ACTION!
32 NUMERACY FROM AROUND THE WORLD
BC PERFORMANCE STANDARDS Numeracy refers to the application of mathematical understanding in daily activities at school, at home, at work, and in the community. It involves both using mathematical skills and knowing how mathematics can be used to solve problems. Just as there is more to literacy than teaching the rules and procedures of language, there is more to numeracy than teaching the rules and procedures of mathematics. Numerate individuals not only “know” mathematics, but understand it in personally meaningful terms. They feel competent and confident about their ability to draw on the necessary knowledge and apply it in new and relevant ways. http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/perf_stands/numeracy.htm
WESTERN AUSTRALIA CURRICULUM FRAMEWORK Being numerate is about having the disposition and competence to use mathematics to solve practical problems outside mathematics and as a tool for learning beyond the mathematics classroom. http://www.curriculum.wa.edu.au/pages/framework/framework08a.htm
UK STANDARDS Numeracy is a proficiency which is developed mainly in mathematics but also in other subjects. It is more than an ability to do basic arithmetic. It involves developing confidence and competence with numbers and measures. It requires understanding of the number system, a repertoire of mathematical techniques, and an inclination and ability to solve quantitative or spatial problems in a range of contexts. Numeracy also demands understanding of the ways in which data are gathered by counting and measuring, and presented in graphs, diagrams, charts and tables. http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/keystage3/respub/mathsframework/maths/numeracy_and_mathematics/
33 WNCP MATHEMATICS RESEARCH PROJECT: FINAL REPORT "Mathematics is a common human activity, increasing in importance in a rapidly advancing, technological society. A greater proficiency in using mathematics increases the opportunities available to individuals. Students need to become mathematically literate in order to explore problem-solving situations, accommodate changing conditions, and actively create new knowledge in striving for self-fulfillment." (Alberta Learning, 1996, p.2). We must keep in mind that: "Mathematics is more than numbers just as reading is more that letters. Literacy involves placing numbers into meaningful context in daily living.” (Balas, 1997) "Like literacy, numeracy is not a case of one's either being proficient or not, rather individuals' skills are "situated along a continuum of different purposes and levels of accomplishment with numbers. Numeracy includes a range of skills that are necessary for initial survival in a new country and for functioning as a fully literate person.” (Ciancone, 1996) As the world of today's students rapidly changes more and more they find themselves affected by things involving technology and mathematics. In order for today's students to be prepared to succeed as productive members of society it is essential that they become knowledgeable in the many areas of mathematics. Being literate, according to The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language and Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary is to have knowledge or competence. From this we might assume that to be mathematically literate is to have knowledge or competence in the area of mathematics. However, this definition lacks the clarity needed to be fully useful when considering mathematics curriculum. Just as the term literacy, defined in the Compact Oxford English Dictionary as the ability to read and write, implies the everyday use of letters in the process of communication, mathematical literacy must involve the everyday practical use of numbers. This implies that to be mathematically literate a person must be able to use numbers in everyday activities and to understand how others use them within the societal context that the individual is found. Part of the concept of mathematical literacy would appear to be numeracy, which, according to The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language is "the ability to think and express oneself effectively in quantitative terms." The Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary defines numeracy as "the capacity for quantitative thought and expression." These appear to be much closer to the idea of literacy as it is defined in relation to language. The Ontario Literacy Coalition has published three bulletins in their Best Practice and Innovations series. Their bulletin on numeracy indicates that a dictionary definition of numeracy is hard to find even in Britain where the term is most commonly used instead of mathematical literacy (Ontario Literacy Coalition, 2001). One definition put forward in this document seems to support the OECD/PISA definition with respect to the application of mathematical skills and knowledge. This definition could easily cross to represent that of mathematical literacy: "Numeracy not only incorporates the individual's abilities to use and apply mathematical skills efficiently and critically, but also requires the person to be able to interpret and communicate about mathematical information and reasoning processes." Unlike most other jurisdictions in Canada, British Columbia has used the term numeracy rather than mathematical literacy in its "Handbook for Parents" entitled "Numeracy for Secondary Students." In this handbook the definition for numeracy developed by the British Columbia Association of Mathematics Teachers (BCAMT) is adopted. The BCAMT defines numeracy as: "...the combination of mathematical knowledge, problem solving and communication skills required by all persons to function successfully within our technological world. Numeracy is more than knowing about numbers and number operations." According to Hughes and his colleagues (Hughes, Desforges, Mitchell, & Carre, 2000) numeracy is more about the ability to use and apply rather than just knowing. Another way to consider it is: "Numeracy is the ability to process, interpret and communicate numerical, quantitative, spatial, statistical, even mathematical, information, in ways that are appropriate for a variety of contexts, and that will enable a typical member of the culture or subculture to participate effectively in activities that they value (Evans, 2000)."
34 TYPES OF NUMERACY TASKS
1. Planning Tasks 2. Fair share Tasks 3. Estimation Across a Large Number of Variables Tasks 4. Modeling Tasks
COMPONENTS OF A GOOD NUMERACY TASK
contextual low floor high ceiling high degree of freedom some fixed condition intentional ambiguity
35