Numeracy across the Curriculum

The following are ideas to be used across KLAs to improve students skills in the following
areas: graphs and fractions & decimals.

By Zani Alam

Numeracy in LOTE
Conducting A SURVEY

1-Write the different countries under the

heading: County

Task
Give students a list of
countries
France, Italy, China, Lebanon, Samoa, India and
US
Conduct a survey to find out which countries
students like to visit
Draw a column graph to show the result
Activity A
1- What is the number of students who chose
France?
2- Write the number as a fraction of the total and
simplify
3- Calculate the percentage of students who chose
France
4- Do the same for the other countries
Activity B

2. Write the number of each country under the

heading: Number.
3. Write the number of each country as a
fraction of the total.
4. What is the percentage of each country?
5. Which country form the list is missing?
Country
France
Italy
China
Lebanon
Samoa
India
US

Number

Fraction

percentage

Numeracy in LOTE
READING and analysing data

3- What is the title of the graph?

______________________________________

The following table and graph show the percentages of

languages spoken in Australia.
Percentage

English

78.5

Chinese

2.5

Italian

1.6

Greek

1.3

Arabic

1.2

Vietnamese

Other

8.2

Not specified

5.7

Answer the following Questions:

1- List the main languages spoken in Australia from
most to least
_________________________________________
_________________________________________
2- What percentage of people speaks Chinese?
__________________________________

Graph of languages spoken in Australia

Percentage

Language spoken

4- What is the scale on the vertical axis?

Language spoken

Numeracy in History
Reading and analysing data

Answer the following questions about the above sector

graph:

This sector graph shows how William of Normandy

(later known as William the Conqueror) divided up
England after he invaded in 1066.

1- Give the graph a title

2- What percentage of people followed the Catholic

Church?
_______________________________________

3- Change it to a fraction.
4- Which group of people make up 50%?
5- Which two groups make up 30%?

_______________________________________

Source: Retroactive 1
Third Edition 2009 Page
151

Numeracy in PDHPE
Reading and analysing data
The following graph shows the percentage of favourite
sport by year 8.

Activity B
1- Write the different sports under the heading:
Sport
2. Write the number of each sport under the
heading: Number.
3. Write the number of each sport as a fraction
of the total.
4. What is the percentage of each sport?

1234-

Activity A
How many students chose basketball?
Write the number as a fraction of the total and
simplify.
Calculate the percentage of students who chose
France.
Do the same for the other countries.

Sport
basketball
Tennis
Volleyball
Soccer
Netball

Number

Fraction

percentage

Numeracy in TAS
Reading and interpreting data
The amount of sugar in 7 different foods was measured
as a percent. The data is summarized in the column
graph below.

Answer the following questions:

1- Round each precent the nearest number
2- Convert each answer to a Fraction
3- Convert each answer to a decimal
4- What is the percentage of sugar in peanut butter?
5- Which food has the highest amount of sugar?
6- What can you conclude?
7- Use the data in the graph to draw a table.

Source:
http://www.mathgoodies.com/lessons/graphs/bar_gra
ph.html

Numeracy in TAS (Cooking)

Ratio
Sometimes recipes are given in the form of ratios. This
allows you to make as much or as little as you want, as

2-

Simplify your answer

50:1:150

3-

To make double the quantity of pancakes, how

much do we need of each ingredient?
We just double the amount of each
ingredient
200 : 4 : 600
Thats 200g flour, 4 eggs and 600ml of milk

long as the ingredients stay in the same ratio to one

another.

Pancakes
For every 100g flour, use 2 eggs and 300ml milk.
Questions:
1What is the ratio of flour (g) to eggs to milk
(ml)?
The ratio of flour (g) to eggs to milk (ml) is
100: 2: 300

Numeracy in English
Conducting a survey
Task
Give students a list of TV Channels
Conduct a survey to find out which channels
students like to watch.
Draw a column graph to show the result

Activity A
1- How many students chose Channel 7?
2- Write the number as a fraction of the total and
simplify.
3- Calculate the percentage of students who chose
Channel 7
4- Do the same for the other Channels.

Activity B
1- Write the number for each channel under the
heading: Number.
3. Write the number of each Channel as a fraction
of the total.
4. What is the percentage of each Channel?
5. Which Channel is missing?
Television
Channel
7
9
10
ABC
SBS
Other

Number

Fraction

percentage

Numeracy in English
Reading and analysing data
Conducting a survey
Refer to the sector graph to answer the following
questions:
1- What is the title of the graph.
2- Give another title to the graph.
3- Use the data in the graph to draw a table.
4- What is the percentage of teens that use social
media once a day?
5- Change the answers to fractions then to
decimals.
6- Conduct a survey to find out how often
students in your class use social media.

Social media use by teens

Numeracy in Music
Reading and analysing data
The graph below shows the results
of a survey conducted to find out the preferred music
of a class of 25 students.
1- What is the most preferred music in this survey?
_________________________________________
2- What is the least preferred music?
________________________________________
3- What fraction of students:
a) Prefer Rap music?
_________________________________________
b) Prefer Rock and Roll?
_________________________________________
4- Which three styles together make up more than half
of the preferred music?
_______________________________
__________

5- List one advantage and one disadvantage of using a

sector graph.

Graph of Music preferences of

students
Classical
Country
Heavy metal

3% 7%

Rock and Roll

13%

Rap
Others

40%
20%

17%

Numeracy in English
Interpreting results
An important branch of mathematics is statistics, which
deals with the collection, analysis, interpretation,
presentation, and organization of data. You can use your
skills in English to interpret results you get from
collecting data.
The ability to interpret data presented in tables,
graphs and charts is a common requirement for many
jobs.

This Line graph shows temperature in degrees

Celsius plotted over a week.
The highest temperature shown in the graph is
38.4C.
Ths
The temperature starts by going up meaning the
temperature is rising until Monday.
After Monday the line starts going down meaning
the temperature is going down or falling.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/factsheet/ma37grapl1-f-extracting-and-interpreting-data-from-line-graphs