Difficulty: Rating: GCSE Marks:

GCSE Text:
A volunteer team is processing donated shoeboxes which will be given to children in Eastern Europe who would otherwise have nothing at Christmas.

Shoeboxes are categorised either to an individual boy or girl, or to a home where the contents are for a family. Here is a frequency table showing the boxes checked by just one volunteer in an evening.

a)  Complete the frequency table

b)  Calculate the total number of boxes that this one volunteer completed in an evening.

Suggestions:
This is a great video to start lessons or discussions on living a balanced life with a social and moral responsibility as well. Students often find it fascinating to consider Christmas for those affected by poverty and war, and many healthy discussions often follow this video. This simple counting task is a good example where tallies can be made as items are processed, and the frequency calculated/totalled afterwards.  Normally students solve this in only 2-3 minutes without a calculator.  It can lead nicely into calculating percentage of an amount too.

Extension Ideas:
Teachers could extend the learning by considering:

• Brown shipping cartons contain 9 shoeboxes. Out of the 1050 donated shoeboxes, 60 were for a family, and the rest were for an individual child. How many brown shipping cartons will be needed for the family shoeboxes, and how many cartons will be needed for the individual shoeboxes?