Real World Math with Expressions Worksheets
Math is one of the very few subject areas that can be applied to help us in almost all different aspects of life. We can use it to help us make good decisions and predict what might happen, if we change this or that. In a way it helps manipulate our environment to suit our own needs. To this we often need to create variable expressions to describe what is happening in a real world situation or experience. In that expression there is one or more undefined or unknown values that are described by the use of variable (letter symbol). Based on what ever else we know from this situation, we can often solve or satisfy these expressions in such a way as to better understand our environment. These worksheets and lessons will put you through a bunch of real world scenarios where you can use expressions to help you better understand what is going on around you and make better choices.
Aligned Standard: Grade 6 Expressions and Equations - 6.EE.B.7
- Filling a Shelf Step-by-step Lesson- We determine the left over book space on a shelf.
- Guided Lesson - Concert tickets, increasing membership rates, and show passes. What other problems really exist in the world?
- Guided Lesson Explanation - I show you how to setup the equations to get these to work for you and not against you.
- Practice Worksheet - A great series of straight to the point questions.
- Matching Worksheet - Match the word problems their solution. I put all the questions in a scenarios I actually saw over the course of a month.
- Answer Keys - These are for all the unlocked materials above.
Homework Sheets
I assume that students have seen the basic concept of an expression before in these.
- Homework 1 - Paul is about to put books on a shelf. The shelf can hold 100 books. The shelf already has 25 books. How many more books can Paul add to the shelf to fill it?
- Homework 2 - Kara was working on increasing the membership for the new health club. She was able to increase the membership at the rate of 15 females for every male. If she increased the club by a total of 32 members, how many new females will be new to the club?
- Homework 3 - Terry sells expensive horse toys inside the mall. He sells them for $5 more than the place outside the mall. If someone would have saved $15 from buying toys outside the mall, how many horse toys did they buy?
Practice Worksheets
I forgot how long it takes to thoroughly explain one of these problems.
- Practice 1 - Romeo has 30 coloring books. He has colored 10 of them. How many books are left for him to color?
- Practice 2 - Wilbur has owned 10 pets. He has 5 cats and the rest of his pets were dogs. How many dogs did Wilbur have?
- Practice 3 - Katy came in third place in a video game competition with 50 points. The first place winner scored 200 points. How many points was Katy off the lead by?
Math Skill Quizzes
Each quiz is progressively more challenging on purpose.
- Quiz 1 - There are three boxes of fruits. There are 300 fruits in a box. If the number of mangoes are 50 more than the apples. How many apples are there in the box?
- Quiz 2 - There are 950 students in a school. If the number of girls is 120 less than the number of boys, how many boys are there in the school?
- Quiz 3 - Kelly sold 2 times as many tickets for her show as she did last week. If she sold 46 tickets this week. How many total tickets did she sell between this week and last week?
How Are Expressions Used in The Real World?
Expression are math statements that can be composed of any combination of numbers, mathematical operators, variables, or collection of any of them. They are presented in such a manner that they can be evaluated and, in the end, produce a result of some kind. The final value of an expression depends heavily on the positioning of the variables and constants. You will also find that expressions are often positioned within the framework of equations to be solved in much the same manner.
To see how this applies to real life let’s examine a somewhat common daily scenario. A girl wants to read 2 books over her summer vacation, and she doesn't have those books yet. She also knows nothing about the books. Therefore, she is not sure how many pages will be there in each of those books. She doesn't want to wait until the last second to read the books, so she planned on reading the same number of pages for the entire summer vacation. If her summer vacation is 72 days long, she could write an expression that would represent the number of pages she would need to read each day. Here is how you can learn how the expression is useful in real-life situations. Once she knew the number of pages in each of the books, she could instantly determine the number of pages she would need to read each day to get meet her deadline. By solving that problem, she can plan her summer accordingly.
A variable expression is a mathematical phrase that contains different variables, operations, and numbers. Here are some of the examples of an expression:
- 3x + y, -10r - x, - b3 + 2, - mx - 4.
These expressions can be used for defining a real-life situation where there are one or more quantities that are the unknown value or can have a change in value. This is the next step in the process of better understanding and making good decisions in the real world.