How old is Steven? When his age is divided by four, the calculator display ends in ".75" and when divided by five ends in ".4". How old do you think Steven is?

 Age divided by 4 Age divided by 5

## A Mathematics Lesson Starter Of The Day

Topics: Starter | Calculator | Decimals | Number

• Transum,
•
• Of course age is a measurement of time that is usually expressed as a whole number. This is unlike most other measurements which are typically given more precisely using decimals or fractions. A person's height may be 1.74 metres while the time left till lunch may be two and a half hours. It is important for pupils to think about appropriate degrees of precision when giving answers to real life problems and this starter can be extended to discuss this.
• Year 8, The Quest Academy
•
• We multiplied 0.25, 1.25 and 2.25 by four and we multiplied 0.6, 1.6 and 2.6 by five, giving us the sequences 1, 5, 9... and 3, 8, 13... We found that 13 and 33 were in both of our sequences and made a sequence out of 13, 33, 53, 73 etc. Mr. Moore loved how much maths was in such a small, simple question. Chamel loved her pink calculator.

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Previous Day | This starter is for 6 December | Next Day

Note to teacher: Doing this activity once with a class helps students develop strategies. It is only when they do this activity a second time that they will have the opportunity to practise those strategies. That is when the learning is consolidated. Click the button above to regenerate another version of this starter from random numbers.

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 Teacher, do your students have access to computers?Do they have iPads or Laptops in Lessons? Whether your students each have a TabletPC, a Surface or a Mac, this activity lends itself to eLearning (Engaged Learning).

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