Maths is Everywhere - Healthcare

Healthcare Crisis during Covid19 initial outbreak

During the outbreak of Covid19, the Singapore government implemented the Circuit Breaker to slow down the infection. The sudden implementation resulted in many migrant workers, especially those who were not in major housing communities to miss out the essential care. Food, essential items, and hygiene products were needed.

As a family, we decided to raise funds for an NGO movement that seeks to provide for this left-out group. The following process highlights how Maths was introduced to the boys naturally.

I told the boys that for every year $1 they donate, I will also donate $1. Then the next question(s):

• How much should daddy donate If you donate your $200? [$200]

• How much will the organiser receive from our family? [$400]

We eventually donated $500.

1) Sorting

The children took out all their coins from the ‘coin container’ and started sorting them into a new 5-cents, 10-cents, 20-cents, 50-cents and $1.

2) Sets and Multiplication

Make sets of $1:

• Twenty 5-cents coins

• Ten 10-cents coins

• Five 20-cents coins

• 2 50-cents coins

• One $1 coin

3) Larger Set

The boys then cluster 10 sets of $1 into $10.

4) Counting and Multiplication of 10

They started to count the number of large sets (about 23) and multiply them by $10 to get $230.

5) Addition

The rest of the coins that were not in larger sets of $10 were added; a few dollars in total.

6) 1 to 1 matching

Tze Yu needed to tell me what is the final amount after my 1:1 matching (about $470)

7) Round off

In this case, I took the opportunity to teach on ‘rounding off to the nearest $100’. Yes, he got the concept and articulated $500.

What are some Maths concepts you can integrate into certain ‘Healthcare’ topics?