Maths

A couple of groups have been focusing on ratios and rates. It has been a great challenge for the students to get their heads around something similar to fractions, and yet different.

A ratio is a comparison between 2 things (or sometimes more than 2). It looks at the relationship between 2 things. This could be how many dogs there are for every cat. Or it could be how much red paint gets mixed with blue paint to create green.

A rate is when one of the things being compared is time. So it could mean how far a man walks in 15 minutes or how long it takes a baker to bake 5 loaves of bread. You might know that a car travels 30 km in 15 minutes (this would be shown as 30:15). If I want to know how far it could go in 7 minutes I need to find out the unit rate. A unit rate is when one of the units is 1. I could find the unit rate by reducing the 30:15 to 2:1. So for every minute I travel I cover a distance of 2km. So in 7 minutes I would travel 14 km.

Here is a video that has helped introduce the students to ratios and rates.