Gymnastic competition

Gymnastic competition

Pencil and paper
Overview
Using this Resource
Connecting to the Curriculum
Marking Student Responses
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This task is about ordering decimal numbers.

Gabriel and Andrea took part in a gymnastics competition.

The scores for each of their four routines are shown in the boxes below.

 

a)
Gabriel’s Scores:
7.905
7.590
7.950
7.509
 
Put Gabriel’s scores in order from smallest to largest
 
 
__________, __________, __________, __________
   smallest                                                     largest
 
b) Andrea's Scores:
8.48
8.6 
8.317
8.29		 Put Andrea's scores in order from smallest to largest
 
 
__________, __________, __________, __________
   smallest                                                     largest
Task administration: 
This task is completed with pencil and paper only.
Level:
4
Curriculum info: 
Maths, Number and Algebra, Number Knowledge
Keywords: 
decimals, ordering numbers, place value
Description of task: 
Students order decimal numbers which are scores from a gymnastics competition.
Answers/responses: 
   Y6 (11/2003)
a) 7.509, 7.590, 7.905, 7.950 easy
b) 8.29, 8.317, 8.48, 8.6 difficult

 

Diagnostic and formative information: 
  Student response Likely misconception
b) 8.6, 8.29, 8.48, 8.317 Treats digits after the decimal point as whole numbers.

NOTE: If this error has been made, a) may be correct for the wrong reasons. Care must be taken to check that students have a full understanding of decimals, especially when there are the same number of digits after the decimal point.