The purpose of this activity is to engage students in using grid references to solve a problem.
This activity assumes the students have experience in the following areas:
The problem is sufficiently open ended to allow the students freedom of choice in their approach. It may be scaffolded with guidance that leads to a solution, and/or the students might be given the opportunity to solve the problem independently.
The example responses at the end of the resource give an indication of the kind of response to expect from students who approach the problem in particular ways.
A supermarket has its shelves laid out in a plan that uses a battleships style grid reference based on letters A to N across and 1 to 20 down.
It has stock in the following places:
Dairy A1-E1,
Frozen food A2-A14,
Dinner Ingredients I3-I17 and K3-K17,
Deli F1-H1,
Meat I1-N1,
Fruit and Vegetables L3-L12 and N2-N12,
Specials L13-L17 and N13-N17,
Snacks and Junk F3-F17 and H3-H17,
Magazines A15-A17, Hardware,
Cleaning and Pet food C10-C17 and E10-E17.
The entrance space makes a rectangle with L18 and N20 being opposite corners.
The check-out area makes a rectangle with A18 and K20 being opposite corners.
There is also shelf space for baking products.
The following prompts illustrate how this activity can be structured around the phases of the Mathematics Investigation Cycle.
Introduce the problem. Allow students time to read it and discuss in pairs or small groups.
Discuss ideas about how to solve the problem. Emphasise that, in the planning phase, you want students to say how they would solve the problem, not to actually solve it.
Allow students time to work through their strategy and find a solution to the problem.
Allow students time to check their answers and then either have them pair share with other groups or ask for volunteers to share their solution with the class.
The student creates a grid system, locates the product sections correctly from the information, and uses the grid to solve the problem.
Click on the image to enlarge it. Click again to close.
The student creates a grid system, locates the product sections correctly from the information, and uses the grid to solve the problem.
Printed from https://meaningfulmaths.nt.edu.au/mmws/nz/resource/banana-cake at 8:51pm on the 26th February 2024