Making it Relevant to the Real World
A Wedding
You can find maths connections to most real-world situations to demonstrate its relevance to life. Take my daughter’s wedding on the weekend – we needed maths at every stage of the planning. Here’s just some of it.
Number: number of people, total number divided up for tables, total budget, cost to hire the venue, cost per head for the food, cost for 6 hours of photography, cost for celebrant, cost for MC and DJ, cost for cake, cost for dress, bouquet and bridal party outfits.
Measurement – time – date of wedding, date for invitations to go out, bookings to be made and progress payments due, number of songs required and their length to fill the reception time, length of song to walk down the aisle, time for bridal rolls to arrive in order to reach the venue 15 minutes before ceremony due to start, estimated time for ceremony and photos in order to book the outdoor reserve for the event, paying by the hour.
Measurement – length – length of dress to be altered, length of table runners for the venue, length of decoration for the bridal arch.
2D and 3D spatial structure – round or rectangular tables at venue, shaped bases for table decorations, 3D table decorations carved from rectangular prism blocks of wood, shape of bridal arch, symmetry of decorations around it, 3D lanterns on tables, shapes used in unique design of wedding rings.
You can have your children/students choose a topic and brainstorm all the maths connections for it in a similar way! They could even use a diagram to show all the information.
