Journeys of jane: london adventure

story by olivia buirge

illustrations by story jumper

EDUC 327:

Teaching Elementary Math

Preview audio:

storyj.mp/adffamqd3kjb

grade 6

m06.a-r.1.1.2 Find the unit rate a/b associated with a ratio a:b (with b ≠ 0) and use rate language in the context of a ratio relationship

m06.a.r.1.1.4 solve unit rate problems including those involving unit pricing and constant speed.

“See you later, Scarlett!” I called out to my best friend as I was getting in my mom’s car after school. It was a Monday after a long weekend and I felt extra tired throughout the day. My mom always asked me how my day was, but today she was especially talkative. “We’re having a family meeting tonight at 8 after you get home from volleyball practice by the way, Jane. Please make sure you get your homework done before that,” she said. Not thinking much of the family meeting, as they were fairly common when mom and dad needed to talk to us kids about something.

After getting home from school and relaxing for a little while watching my favorite television show, I headed up to my room to start on my homework. I spent a lot of time on my Social Studies reading because we’re learning about different countries and their cultures. This month is our Western European unit and it’s been my favorite thing I’ve learned so far.

Today, Mrs. Metz, my Social Studies teacher, showed us a documentary on the city of London. The video explained that Big Ben is 316 feet tall and there are 32 capsules on the London Eye! We’re also assigned to do a project on a Western European city. Today, Mrs. Metz told me that my city is London so the documentary was perfect for me! I wanted to start researching right away because there’s so much to learn and the city seems very cool.

Today we started a new math unit that was kind of confusing to me. Mrs. Watson, my math teacher, started teaching us about ratios today. She first started by explaining the concept of a ratio a:b. I guess it builds off of multiplication and division and is similar to fractions, but not quite the same. Mrs. Watson always talks about the connections of our math lessons to the “real world”, but I’m confused about how to relate ratios to things that happen in my life. She also said that we’re going to use the idea of ratios to solve problems about pricing and speed. I was having trouble seeing the “real world connection” in class, but maybe my homework will help that.

“It’s time for dinner, Jane,” my mom said as she walked into my room. “What are you working on?” she asked. “Just my math homework about ratios. I don’t understand why this is so important! I will never use this! It’s pointless!” I exclaimed. Feeling more upset and frustrated by the minute because I didn’t understand why we needed to learn this.

“Jane, you never know when that could come in handy. I thought the same thing when I was in 6th grade. Learning how to price something is important at the grocery store when you’re comparing what products to get. And it may be helpful one day to know how fast it takes to get from one place to another. When I went to New York City in college, I needed to know the speed of the subway from one area of town to the next so that I could be efficient with my time. There was so much I wanted to see!” my mom replied. “I just know that you’ll find it useful one day and probably sooner rather than later!”

After eating dinner quickly and going to volleyball practice, I got home just in time for the family meeting. “This family meeting is a little different than other family meetings,” my dad said. My younger brother William, older sister Elena and I all looked at one another kind of nervously because family meetings don’t normally start this way. My dad is a pilot for one of the largest airlines, so often times family meetings are when they tell us when dad will be gone and when he’ll be home so that we can help my mom out around the house. “So as you kids know, my job allows me to travel all around the world and a few times I’ve brought your mother with me on my trips. Well, your mother and I have been keeping this a secret for a while, but I have a trip planned next month and we’ve decided to bring the whole family along!”

Obviously elated for this news, William, Elena and I jumped up and down with excitement. “Do you want to know where we’re going?” asked my mom. In the midst of all of the excitement that we’d be going on a special vacation, we forgot to even ask where we we’d be going! “YES!” we all exclaimed. “Drum roll please,” my dad said. “London, England!” my mom shouted. I wish I could have seen the look on my own face because I could not contain my excitement and neither could my siblings.

A month later, my family was off on our European adventure! The flight was the longest one I had been one, but once we were in London, I didn’t even care! We quickly got off the plane and checked into our beautiful hotel. We wanted to start sightseeing immediately because we had a lot to do in a short amount of time! Our first start was in the heart of London at the London Eye. We got to ride up and see a beautiful view of the city! The next stop was Big Ben. We asked someone how far away Big Ben was and found out it was only half a mile away. It was 2:49 when we got off the Eye and it was 2:57 when we got there. “Only 8 minutes to walk from the London Eye to Big Ben! That’s pretty efficient time if we can walk half a mile in 8 minutes in this busy city!” my dad exclaimed.

“Honey, it’s already 3:50 and the show is at 4! Even if we did get a taxi, we wouldn’t make it on time!” said my mom nervously. “I wish I knew how long it would take to get there! This map says it is only 4 miles away, but how long will that take us?” We all looked at one another confused as to how to answer. Then a lightbulb went off in my head.

“Wait! I just learned about this in math class! It’s the idea of a ratio!” I exclaimed. “Okay, Jane, so it took us 8 minutes to walk half a mile. You could also think of this as .5 mile. How long will it take us to walk 4 miles?” my dad asked. “Hm, okay I’ll figure this out quickly!” I proudly said.

We admired the Big Ben for quite some time. The documentary I watched in Mrs. Metz’s class didn’t do the building justice. I couldn’t believe how tall it was! Next on the agenda was a showing of a Beatles documentary at the Abbey Road Studios. My dad loves the Beatles, so this was his first pick of what he wanted to do while we were here. The Studios were only 15-20 minutes away, but it would have been a long walk, so my dad said that we should get a taxi to drive over. “Taxi! Taxi!” my dad started shouting and waving his hands. This continued for 10 minutes and he still could not get a hold of one.

You've previewed 18 of 29 pages.
To read more:

Benefits:

Full access to our public library
Save favorite books
Interact with authors

DOWNLOAD
LIKE
COMMENT

()
SHARE
SAVE

BUY THIS BOOK (from $5.59+)

BUY THIS BOOK
(from $5.59+)
BUY THIS BOOK
(from $5.59+)
DOWNLOAD
LIKE

Liked By

COMMENT ()
SHARE
SAVE
Report

Encourage this author

BUY
LIKE
COMMENT

()
SHARE

Excessive Violence
Harassment
Offensive Pictures
Spelling & Grammar Errors
Unfinished
Other Problem

"Journeys of Jane: London adventure"

Name: Journeys of Jane: London adventure
Author: obuirge29

obuirge29

Jane, a 6th grader, learns about ratios in school and finds them pointless. However, during a surprise family trip to London, she uses her knowledge of ratios to solve real-life problems, proving their importance.

(29 pages)

Privacy level: PUBLIC

16 reads

Report