Percentages (Stage 4)

Relevance

Per cent is Latin for 'out of 100'. One dollar equals 100 cents and one century equals 100 years. We come across percentages in many everyday situations. Interest rates, discounts, test results and statistics are just some of the common ways we deal with percentages. Percentages represent quantities as a fraction of one hundred. People can relate to this easily because of our decimal system. They are another way of writing a fraction with a denominator of 100.

There are lots of reasons why you may want to find the percentage of a number. Let's suppose that you want to buy a new laptop computer for $500. You have checked local suppliers and one company has offered to give you 20% off the price. How much will the laptop cost taking into account the discount offered? Hence understanding percentages is a skill which will be beneficial during many aspects in the future.

Rationale

As emphasised above, percentages play a large part within everyday life. The aim of this unit of work is to have students enlightened about the initial concepts of percentages, and then to ensure that students call on their newfound knowledge to solve problems involving percentages.

Students will learn how to feel comfortable in the use of percentages through understanding the concept of how a percentage is a representation of a number out of a hundred. In addition, students will develop the skill to convert percentages to and from fractions and decimals.

Assumed Prior Knowledge

• Operations with fractions and whole numbers

Syllabus Outcomes

• communicates and connects mathematical ideas using appropriate terminology, diagrams and symbols MA4-1WM
• applies appropriate mathematical techniques to solve problems MA4-2WM
• recognises and explains mathematical relationships using reasoning MA4-3WM
• operates with fractions, decimals and percentages MA4-5NA