A Multiplication Investigation

Today, in Maths, Middle S explored a real life problem as a way to practise a real use of multiplication and to help our vegetable garden. Essentially, it involved solving the problem:

• We need bird netting for our vegie garden. Investigate. In groups use a piece of A3 paper to record your investigation. Record your questions to each other and your answers/actions or what you want to do.

This is what happened...

 

After lots of discussion, measuring and recording, we returned to class to put it all together. Calculating the area proved challenging, but with a diagram and a online search of hardware stores, we found the right materials for the job. Finally, we calculated how much of each product we would need and the total cost.

3 vegie patches with an area of about 3m2, would be covered by a 4x4 metre net.
Multiply this by 3.
If the nets are $12.98 each, what is the total cost of buying 1 net for each of the 3 patches?
We thought stakes might be handy too? Why?
They come in packs of 10 at $3.59 each. How many stakes would we need? How many packets of them?

What do you think our total cost was in the end?

Do you have any suggestions for what we have done?
Would you have done it differently?