The activity MATH: Calculating Percentages is a great way to review basic percentage calculations at the beginning of your course or unit. In this activity, students will practice calculating (either mentally or with a calculator) using various values that come up in shopping, spending your money wisely, and taking care of themselves.

At a time where many schools have transitioned to offering synchronous and asynchronous learning, we’ve listed some adaptations and supplemental activities that may work for your current classroom environment. 

Synchronous Environment Ideas:

• Convert the worksheet to an interactive activity. Here is a slide deck you can customize or use. Depending on how you customize this activity, you will have to decide if you want to display the slides on your screen, have the students make a copy to type in their answers, or use a platform such as Nearpod to deliver the lesson (here is a preview-only and editable version in Nearpod). 
• Encourage students to have paper, pencil, and possibly a calculator ready!
• Complete the example (slide 1) together as a class. Demonstrate and discuss how to calculate the correct answer (slide 2).
• Still working together as a whole class, have students try two additional problems (slides 3 & 4) on their own. They could share their answers in the chat or simply hold their paper up to the computer camera. 
• Put students in Breakout Rooms to solve three questions on their own (slide 5). You can give them a set amount of time to complete the problems as a group, or make it a race to see who can finish and come back to the main room first!
• Conclude the session by having students complete the Reflection Questions as a whole group. 

Asynchronous Environment Ideas: 

• The Google Slides, Google Doc, or Nearpod version of this activity can easily be used in a student-paced asynchronous environment. 

If you’re looking for additional NGPF resources with suggestions on how to facilitate in a virtual environment, view NGPF’s Virtual Adaptation Series!

About the Author

Amanda Volz

Amanda joins the NGPF Team with over 20 years of experience teaching personal finance. During that time, she led her students to hundreds of thousands of dollars in scholarships, won multiple awards, and most importantly, impacted the financial lives of thousands of high school students. Amanda prides herself on being an educational leader and is constantly looking for innovative ways to make the classroom relevant, rigorous, and fun. She is a passionate advocate for financial education and has been a long-time member of the NGPF community. Fun fact - Amanda was NGPF’s first teacher account! When Amanda isn’t working, she enjoys cooking, gardening, and traveling with her husband and two children.

More posts by Amanda