Divide & Conquer

Divide and conquer was our motto this past weekend when we took a family camping trip to southern Minnesota.  If you have ever been camping you know that it can be lots of work, but tons of fun.  We had our family of 5 (2 adults and 3 kids) and our friends, who are a family of 4 (2 adults and 2 kids) in a camper and tent.  The adults were of course in the air conditioned camper and kids were all in the tent.  Many great meals were had, water balloons thrown, s'mores eaten, new friends made, and money spent.  This brings up a few mathematical opportunities.

  

Cinnamon Rolls On A Stick ~ Epic Fail

I don’t know about you, but I am always curious how much we actually spend total on vacation.  Here are totals for food, camping, gas, and extras: 

·         Camper Site                             $285.36

·         Tent Site                                  $203.34

·         Food                                          $227.44

·         Gas                                            $500.00

·         Extras (Treats, Golf, etc.)       $300.00      
    Total                                      $1516.14  

Division plays a big role in our everyday lives when trying to figure out the cost of items; whether they are on sale at a certain discount, figuring out how much someone owes you for something, or how long something will take.   Now let’s see how much this trip was per person and per family.

Take the total divided by the number of people.  Then take the cost per person and multiply it by the number of members for each family. 

$1516.14 ÷ 9 = $168.46 Per Person

$168.46 × 4 = $673.84 Friend’s Family

$168.46 × 5 = $842.30 Our Family

There are different ways to teach this to your students; from long division, short division, and estimation through rounding.  Here is a video to take a quick look at regarding long division. 



Now go out and "Divide and Conquer!" ~ Shelly