Bottles for Charity

My brother and I collected returnable recycled bottles to give to a charity.

We sorted our bottles into different bags of 100. Some bags were for 10 cent returns and some for 5cent. The 10 cent bags were worth $10.00 each (100 x 0.10). The 5 cent gas were worth $5.00 each.

We ended up after 6 months with 23 $10 bags and 14 $5 bags. This gave us a total of: $230+ $70=$300 for our donation. We practiced adding and multiplying as we gathered up bottles. My brother made a graph each week to count up what we saved. The garage was very full at the end! Mom borrowed our Uncle’s truck to take them to the recycling depot. We also learned about giving.

Eating Your Fill

I love to eat but I also want to stay in shape. I use math to calculate how many calories I am eating for one day. To do this I kept a chart of all the foods I ate in one day and the calories in each food.

• toast with butter: 205
• orange juice: 170
• bowl of cereal: 180
• cheese crackers: 160
• peanut butter sandwich: 400
• celery: 95
• chocolate chip cookies: 150
• apple juice: 120
• spaghetti with sauce: 425
• milk: 120
• carrots: 80

Total: 2105

Then I calculated the calories burned for certain activities I did each day.

• sleeping 8 hours: 514
• walking 2 hours: 472
• basketball 1 hour: 429
• reading 2 hours: 143
• eating 2 hours: 154
• sitting 4 hours: 336
• computer 2 hours: 180
• TV 3 hours: 214

Total: 2442

Planting a Seed!

I use math in many different ways. One way I have used math is when I plant. I measure the amount if stones that need to go on the bottom of the pot. Then, I measure how much soil gets put in the pot. After, that I measure how far down the seed should be in the soil. I also estimate how seeds I put in the hole so I can get the probability of how many seeds will grow. Lastly, I measure how much water the plants should get.

I also have to convert The English System to the Metric System. I wouldn't want to kill the plant because I give them a 1 fl oz of water instead of a liter.

Stay Fit With Math!

Once day every week, I swim and run for an hour each. I wondered how many calories I burned during that two hour period?

I timed my self and ran for 10 minutes and swam for 10 minutes. I ran at a rate of 321 feet per minute so I ran 3210 ft in ten minutes. I swam at a rate of 200 feet per minutes so I ran 2000 ft in ten minutes. To find the amount I run in a hour I multiply by 6(60 minute in a hour divided by 10 minutes) to the amount I run and swim in ten minutes. I got that I run 18720 ft in a hour and I swim 12000 ft in a hour. Running at a rate of 18720 ft in an hour(3.5 miles per hour), I burn a total of 3120 calories because per minute I run I burn 6 calories. Swimming at a rate of 12000 ft in a hour (2.27 miles per hour), I burn 1500 calories because per minute I swim I burn 8 calories. So in the end I burn 1500+3120=4620 calories in 2 hours.

Making A Dollhouse

My sister and I love hands-on projects. She is 7 and I’m 11, and I wanted to do something fun with her one weekend. No problem! We decided to make a dollhouse for her beanie babies. There was lots of math involved. We especially did lots of estimation and measurement. We used patterning for our walls - wallpaper and bricks. We also did lots of basic arithmetic – adding and multiplication mostly.

We needed estimation to be able to determine how big the house would be, first of all, and then how much paint, material and decoration supplies we would need for the house. We also had fun in a non-math related way, choosing paint colours and decoration colours.