Maths

Real World Maths 

Maths Problem Solving

“Choosing the right phone and data plan for me”

Our Year 5 students have recently worked through a unit of maths that compared different phones and phone plans.  Students were tasked to investigate the different features of popular phones currently on the market and select the one they believed represented best value. They recorded a phone's storage capacity, camera quality and cost to arrive at their decision.  Once a mobile phone had been selected they then researched different phone plans, and identified some of the marketing ploys used by companies to sell you more data than you potentially need.  Did you know that the average Australian uses 15.9GB of data a month?  Yet, some phone plans offer 300GB of data a month for $95!  The students discussed how they would use their phone and the approximate amount of data they think they would need and selected a phone plan that best suited them.

Students also had to calculate how long it would take to save up for their phone based on the income of their first job.  Subway, Kmart, Coles and McDonalds were all popular first jobs selected by the students as well as some more boutique fashion stores.  Our students learned a little about minimum wage and the rules around how much you are legally allowed to work, while still attending school.

Hopefully, a seed has been planted in our students minds to create some savvy, financial shoppers in the future!  As one student mentioned to their class… “You gotta be careful of that shrinkflation, because I am not spending more for less!”