Quote from the Teacher: "It was neat to see the students filling out the checks, thinking about where a charity spent their funds. On the final day, mystudents wanted to be sure that they did their letters absolutely perfectly. Corrections and instructions from fellow students were given in whispers. If I had notbeen there, I would have thought that they were working individually. Also I have to tell you, the GATE kids were extremely jealous!"

Overview: Laurel Gutierrez made math come alive in the real world by using charities and percentages in her opening PODs (Problems of the Day ). She also created a list of the many charities within a five mile radius of her school, and had the kids calculate MMMR and create graphs with the data. They concluded by choosing their charities and writing letters to the charities as well as thank you letters to Charity Checks.

Teaching Materials: Includes a list of problems and strategies, a problem of the day that students relating to charity expenses, a list of charities in Simi Valley, and the definition of a tax exempt organization.

Curriculum (PDF, 120kb)

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