Math 3-6

Most sections of this lesson can be taught in one to three class periods and repeated on a regular basis.

Lesson Introduction:

1. From the home page, have students click on "Vote Now!" Debate the issue and submit votes as individuals or as a class. Students will be asked to give their grade, gender, and home state. A pie chart will appear on screen, highlighting the results of the online poll so far.
2. Ask students to write a fraction showing the ratio of voters who said yes, and another fraction showing the ratio of voters who said no.
3. Have older students convert the fractions into percentages. With younger students, introduce the idea that a pie chart is based on percentages. Use a perfect test score of 100 to demonstrate. Explain that a student who earns an 80 on a test got 80 percent of the questions right and 20 percent of the questions wrong. Show how the yes/no question on "Vote Now!" is based on the same premise.
4. Use the "View Graph" button beneath the pie chart to look at results broken down by grade, gender, and state. For example, students can view the results for only their grade or only their own state. Have students check to see if younger or older students voted differently than students in their own grade. Discuss reasons why results might vary by age or location.
5. Have students use the data from the pie chart to create a bar graph or pictograph. Or, check back every day for one week to see how people vote over time. Then use that data to create a line graph. Discuss the different uses of each type of graph. Ask students to offer real-life examples of times when each type of graph would be useful and appropriate.

In Scholastic News Online's "You're the President" game, students can use percentages and pie charts to create a balanced national budget.

1. Introduce the concept of a budget. A budget is a plan for how money will be spent. If a budget is balanced, the amount of money being spent is equal to the amount of money being collected.
2. Explain that one of the President's important tasks is to propose a budget for our nation's spending. The budget then goes to Congress for review and approval. Of course, many causes compete for federal funds. The budget addresses everything from education to the armed forces. The President must decide how much of the nation's money will go to each item.
3. Log on to Scholastic News Online and click on "Games and Quizzes." From there, click on "You're the President" (you'll find it in the purple column on the right side of the page and under "Games and Quizzes" in the blue menu on the left). Explain that students will play this game to learn how to make a balanced budget.
4. Have students follow the game instructions to select Cabinet members, then turn their attention to the budget that appears on screen. Demonstrate how to adjust the percentage of the budget allocated to each item.
5. Ask students to look at the red bar on the right to see what happens when their budget allocations total more than 100 percent. Ask: In real life, what would happen if you tried to spend more money than you had? Explain that this is called a deficit, and that it can hurt the nation's economy.
6. Once students have set their budgets, have them work on their press conference speeches explaining why they chose to allocate funds the way they did.
7. Have students compare their budgets. Ask: Was it difficult to decide how much to spend on each item? Why or why not? Did anyone allocate zero percent of the budget to an item? How do students think people would react if the President tried to do this in real life?

1. Find Purvis's puzzle on the DynaMath page of Scholastic News Online. Have students read the puzzle online or print it out and distribute copies.
2. When students think they have correctly solved the puzzle, have them submit their answers by writing in the window provided and clicking "Send."
3. Have students check back in at the beginning of the next month to see if they are among those who got it right.
4. Continue working on math puzzles with the second activity on the page "Numbers in the News." This activity can be done online with students writing their answers on a separate piece of paper, or you can print this page out to do as in-class work or homework.

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