Doing Taxes

Sometimes everyone will have the same problem: income tax, for example. Every year, the government offers training for people who will volunteer to fill out simple tax forms for others. Take the training yourself, because there are parts of the tax system that don’t apply to your life, or invite one of the trained volunteers in, set a time to give over the class to doing tax, and ask everyone to bring in their various T-4’s and other pieces of paper. Walk through the process with everyone filling in his own numbers. Set up a time for private consultations with the tax volunteer too.

That being said, many students have their taxes done at a commercial tax firm because they offer an immediate refund, after charging a commission. Students may have to/want to pay the commission in order to get immediate cash; however, if they figure out their taxes in math class, and figure out the amount they will pay in commission and fees, they will make an informed decision about whether to mail it in themselves, and wait for the refund, or go to a commercial tax firm.

Field Trips

Below are some examples, which you can tailor to concepts you want to teach.

Take a walk around your area

Go with the students for a walk in the neighborhood, to bring math to real life.

• Find a building made of bricks or concrete blocks and ask them 1) to make an estimate of how many bricks or blocks are in one wall, and in the whole building; and 2) to find a defined area on the building where there are about 100 blocks or bricks, and another defined area where there are about 1 000 blocks or bricks. By defined area, I mean one that is easy to see, for example, "the whole side wall" or "the part of the wall to the left of the doorway" or "the blocks below the white line." Make a sketch of these areas, and label them. This is a way of establishing a mental picture of the size of 100 and 1 000.
• Ask students to make a list of the math problems that someone had to solve to make the street look the way it does. (How many tulip bulbs do I need to fit into the flowerbed at 30 cm apart? How many steps do I need to cut so the staircase will reach the door? How much lumber do I need to buy for this fence? How many panels for that fence? How much paint do I need to cover the walls of this house? What angle do I cut for the pitch of the roof?) Just list the questions-no answers required.
• Make a list of questions that students can answer about a given area, for example, a block, or a three-block strip of a street. Ask about such things as the number of single or multiple family dwellings or the kind of businesses on the street; when the students have answered the questions by walking the area, ask them to categorize the data and figure out proportions or percentages. For example, in a business district, to sort all the businesses into categories (food, retail, financial, medical, legal, government, etc.) and then to write proportions or percents to describe their data. Finally, they can make charts or graphs to display the data. If you ask different students to go to different areas, they can compare their results.