Estimate the menu

Estimate the menu

Pencil and paper
Overview
Using this Resource
Connecting to the Curriculum
Marking Student Responses
Further Resources
This task is about estimating people's order off a menu.
menu.png
 
 
 
 
Your teacher will read out meals ordered from the menu. You will need to estimate the cost of each person's meal. 
Write down your best estimate in each box, clearly showing each step you took to work out your answer.
 
a) Estimate the total cost of Amy's meal. (Estimate, do not do an exact calculation.)

 

 

 My estimate is: ______________

  
b)
  
Estimate the total cost of Veni's meal (estimate, do not do an exact calculation).

 

 

My estimate is: ______________

 
c)
 
Estimate the total cost of Nick's meal (estimate, do not do an exact calculation).

 

 

My estimate is: ______________

 
d)
 
Estimate the total cost of Tu's meal (estimate, do not do an exact calculation).

 

 

My estimate is: ______________

 
e)
 
Estimate how much each of the friends would pay if they shared the total cost of $168.95, equally (estimate, do not do an exact calculation).

 

 

 My estimate is: ______________

Task administration: 
This task is completed with pencil and paper, and other equipment.
 
Equipment:
Pencil; menu sheet; Student Worksheet
  • This task assesses students' ability to use an accurate method of estimation to calculate costs from a menu.
  • Before starting, it is important to emphasise to the student(s) that this is an estimation task, and therefore they will be assessed on their method of estimation rather than their ability to calculate the correct answer. It will become apparent in their workings and explanations if they are making exact calculations, rather than estimating.
  • Assessments may be done on an individual basis or with a group/class of students. If done on a one-to-one basis, students may respond orally, rather than writing down an explanation of their estimation method on the Student Worksheet.
  • The Teacher Record Sheet may be used to collate student scores.
  • The teacher is to read out the following instructions:
  • In this activity you are going to be estimating the total cost of various combinations some friends chose off the menu when they were at Teresa's Terrific Treats for dinner.
  • On the worksheet provided, clearly show all the steps you took in working out your estimate, and then write down your best estimate in the space provided.

Show the students the menu, then say,

  1. Write down your estimate of the total cost of Amy's meal if she chose the tomato pasta, the lettuce salad, and the juice (give the student(s) enough time to calculate and explain their estimate).
  2. Write down your estimate of the total cost of Veni's meal if he chose the steak and mushroom pie, the baked potatoes, and the fizz (give the student(s) enough time to calculate and explain their estimate).
  3. Write down your estimate of the total cost of Nick's meal if he chose the mushroom soup, the roast chicken, two servings of fries, the chocolate cheesecake, and the coffee (give the student(s) enough time to calculate and explain their estimate).
  4. Write down your estimate of the total cost of Tu's meal if he chose two garlic breads, a ham steak, two servings of fries, ice-cream, and two mineral waters (give the student(s) enough time to calculate and explain their estimate).
  5. If the total cost of dinner and taxi fares home came to $168.95, and they shared the cost equally between themselves, estimate how much each of the four friends paid (give the student(s) enough time to calculate and explain their estimate).
Level:
4
Description of task: 
In this practical task, students are to estimate the cost of meals ordered from a menu. The teacher reads out the meals and students show the steps in their estimations.
Curriculum Links: 
This resource can help to identify students' ability to apply additive or multiplicative strategies flexibly to whole numbers to solve addition and multiplication problems.
 
Key competencies
This resource involves recording the strategies students use to solve addition and multiplication problems. This relates to the Key Competency: Using language, symbols and text.
Learning Progression Frameworks
This resource can provide evidence of learning associated with within the Mathematics Learning Progressions Frameworks.
Read more about the Learning Progressions Frameworks.
Answers/responses: 

 

 

2 marks
or
 
1 mark

a)

*Satisfactory estimate given based on an acceptable method of estimation. (The exact calculation is $18.90, e.g., "My estimate is $19, I rounded the pasta to $10, salad to $6, and juice to $3. Then added these to get $19."). Acceptable method but 1 error made including:

  • a rounding error. A rounding error includes instances when a student has rounded up or down inappropriately, e.g., rounding $9.85 to $9.00 rather than $10.00, or rounding $2.35 to $3.00 rather than $2.50.
  • Or a calculation error.

2 marks
or

1 mark

b)

*Satisfactory estimate given based on an acceptable method of estimation. (The exact calculation is $17.95.), e.g., "My estimate is $18, I rounded the pie to $10, potatoes to $5, and the fizz to $3. Then added these to get $18."). Acceptable method but 1 error made including:

  • a rounding error. A rounding error includes instances when a student has rounded up or down inappropriately, e.g., rounding $9.85 to $9.00 rather than $10.00, or rounding $2.35 to $3.00 rather than $2.50.
  • Or a calculation error.

2 marks
or
 
 
1 mark

c)

*Satisfactory estimate given based on an acceptable method of estimation. (The exact calculation is $34.85.) E.g., "My estimate is $34, I rounded the soup to $4, chicken to $15, fries to $6, cheesecake to $6, & coffee to $3. Then added these to get $34."). Acceptable method but 1 error made including:

  • a rounding error. A rounding error includes instances when a student has rounded up or down inappropriately, e.g., rounding $9.85 to $9.00 rather than $10.00, or rounding $2.35 to $3.00 rather than $2.50.
  • Or a calculation error.

2 marks
or

1  mark

d)

*Satisfactory estimate given based on an acceptable method of estimation. (The exact calculation is $32.15.) E.g., "My estimate is $32.50, I rounded the breads to $4, fries to $6, ice-cream to $5, and the 2 mineral waters to $5. Then added the ham steak at $12.50 to get $32.50."). Acceptable method but 1 error made including:

  • a rounding error. A rounding error includes instances when a student has rounded up or down inappropriately, e.g., rounding $9.85 to $9.00 rather than $10.00, or rounding $2.35 to $3.00 rather than $2.50.
  • Or a calculation error.

2 marks
or

1 mark

e)

*Satisfactory estimate given based on an acceptable method of estimation. (The exact calculation is $42.24 [to 2 decimal places].), e.g., "My estimate is $40, I divided 4 into 16, and multiplied by 10."). Acceptable method but 1 error made including:

  • a rounding error. A rounding error includes instances when a student has rounded up or down inappropriately, e.g., rounding $9.85 to $9.00 rather than $10.00, or rounding $2.35 to $3.00 rather than $2.50.
  • Or a calculation error.

*NOTE: Final estimates may vary due to variations in estimation methods used. You should be looking for a logical and sensible method of estimation. No mark to be awarded for exact calculations.

For more information about computational estimation see the Computational estimation concept map.