Where will you buy your Christmas

presents this year?

Which is the cheapest?

1 dollar = 0.6135 British pounds

1 euro = 0.7881 British pounds

Best Value?

How do you decide?

Which is the cheapest?

Which is the cheapest?

What will you give?

Your task is to select some presents that you want to give this Christmas.

You then need to find out in which country you would get the best price for each of your gifts.

Travelling abroad?

If you allow £300 to spend on

accommodation and expenses, which

presents would you need to buy to make

a profit?

Up2d8 mathsThe cost of Christmas

Student resource sheets

Currency conversion

1 euro = 0.7881 British pounds1 dollar = 0.6135 British pounds

Item Sterling Euros DollarsiPod nano 105.32 144.90 139.94

iPod shuffle 32 44.10 46.98

Widescreen tv 769.89 1066.33 1391.36

Cookery book 10 25.51 11.07

Jeans 49 50.50 19.68

CD 12.98 16.50 13.98

DVD 24.99 29.22 34.98

Handheld computer game 96.98 142.99 129.99

Mobile phone 89.99 95.38 97.79

X box game 39.98 59.90 57.79

Hair straighteners 98.70 120.99 129.99

Track download 0.79 20.981.29 0.99

Perfume 21.99 20.98 22.50

Eurostar to Paris?

Fly to New York?

Up2d8 mathsThe cost of Christmas

Teacher Notes

The cost of ChristmasIntroductionThe importance statement for mathematics states that:

Mathematical thinking is important for all members of a modern society as a habit of mind for its use in the workplace, business and finance, and for personal decision-making.

In our modern society, consumers have a wide range of spending choices. This resource aims to increase awareness of the choices available and the decisions that consumers make to maximise their purchasing power.Content objectives•use direct proportion in simple contexts•use proportional reasoning to solve problems, choosing the correct numbers to take as 100%, or as a whole•break down substantial tasks to make them more manageable; represent problems and synthesise information in algebraic, geometrical or graphical form; move from one form to another to gain a different perspective on the problemProcess objectivesThese will depend on the way in which you structure the activity. It might be worth considering how you’re going to deliver the activity and highlighting the processes that this will allow on the diagram below.

Activity: The students’ task is to make some decisions about where and how they will buy their Christmas presents this year.Students can make a selection of gifts from the ‘menu’ offered and then work out which country offers the best value when buying these gifts.As a possible extension, students could consider the possibility of travelling abroad to purchase gifts and the circumstances in which they could make a profit.

Differentiation: You may decide to change the level of challenge for your group. To make the task easier you could consider:

•working with only two currencies, sterling and dollars for example or asking pupils to investigate more currencies (China, Norway, Switzerland)•drawing a conversion graphs, for dollars to sterling say•restricting the number of gifts available•removing the option to travel abroad to shop

To make the task more complex you could consider:•including the cost of postage in the calculations•working with more than three currencies by asking pupils to investigate prices in other countries for example China, Norway or Switzerland•extending the number of gifts available or giving pupils free choice of gifts•increasing the number of travel options available•working out precise costs of accommodation and expenses whilst travelling abroad.

This resource is designed to be adapted to your requirements

Outcomes: You may want to consider what the outcome of the task will be and share this with students according to their ability. This could be:

•a list, with prices, showing a small selection of gifts a family could buy this year•a list, with prices, showing in which country a range of items can be bought most economically•a spreadsheet giving the comparative prices for a range of items across different currencies•a pamphlet giving advice, which a travel agent may provide, for a shopping trip to either Paris or New York detailing the savings that can be made on which sorts of items and indicating the quantities that need to be bought to make the trip economical.

Working in groups: This activity lends itself to paired or small group work and, by encouraging students to work collaboratively, it is likely that you will allow them access to more of the key processes than if they were to work individually.You will need to think about how your class will work on this task. Will they work in pairs, threes or larger groups? If pupils are not used to working in groups in mathematics you may wish to spend some time talking about their rules and procedures to maximise the effectiveness and engagement of pupils in group work (You may wish to look at the SNS Pedagogy and practice pack Unit 10: Groupwork for guidance). You may wish to encourage the groups to delegate different areas of responsibility to specific group members.

Assessment: You may wish to consider how you will assess the task and how you will record your assessment. This could include developing the assessment criteria with your class. You might choose to focus on the content objectives or on the process objectives. You might decide that this activity lends itself to comment only marking or to student self assessment.

Probing questions: Initially students could brainstorm issues to consider. You may wish to introduce some points into the discussion which might include:

– how will you effectively compare the prices of the items?– how do I change a price in US dollars into a price in GB pounds?– how would I change Euros into dollars?– how many items will you choose to investigate?– will you consider the possible postage?– does the exchange rate vary? Does it matter when you buy the presents?– why do the prices vary from country to country?

You will need – The powerpoint display which you might read through with your class to set the scene at the beginning of the activity. There

are seven slides:

The first slide sets the scene

The second slide shows the comparative prices of a popular MP3 player from Great Britain, France and the USA

The third slide gives the currency conversion facts to change Euros and American Dollars to British pounds (sterling)

The fourth and fifth slides illustrate the comparative prices of various other goods

The sixth slide poses the question ‘What will you give?’ and invites students to select some presents that they want to give this Christmas and find out which country would give the best price for each gift.

The final slide gives details of possible air fares to New York and Train fares to Paris. It invites students to work out which presents they would need to buy to make a profit.

• Student resource sheets• you may wish to give pupils access to the internet to extend their investigation.