Overview: Learning about percentages 1

Key words:
Percentage, discount, mark up, tax, GST, increase, decrease,
difference, wastage
Increase, decrease
Purpose: This unit is designed to help tutors who teach courses that require
calculations with percentages, e.g. GST, discounts, wastage

Tutor Outcomes:By the end of the unit tutors should be able to:
1. Recognise contexts and problems that involve percentages
2. Develop lessons in their teaching context that help learners to solve
problems with percentages

Section 1: Mathematical Background

Page 1: What does % mean?

The symbol % is a combination of the
two zeros from 100 and the sign / which
means out of. So % means out of one
hundred.
This can be quite misleading for learners
because in most contexts the
percentage operates on a quantity that
is not 100, e.g. Find 35% of $86 means
you are actually working with $86 not
$100.
Another way to look at it is through the
word percent. Per means for every
and cent is the prefix for 100, like a
century is 100 years or 100 runs. So
percent means for every hundred.

Section 1: Mathematical Background

Page 2: Percentage as a rate

One way to think about a percentage is as a special rate.
At 35% off you pay 65% or $65 in every $100.
At the same rate how much do you pay for something that normally
costs $86?
Normal Price
Discount
Price
100

65

86

Section 1: Mathematical Background

Page 3: Percentage as a rate

All of the things you can do with other rates, like kilometres per
hour, you can do with percentages. Both numbers in the rate can
be multiplied or divided by the same number.

100
x 86

Normal Price
($)

Discount
Price ($)

100

65

0.65

86

55.90

100
x 86

Section 1: Mathematical Background

Page 4: Why do we have percentages?
Percentages are used in two main ways
in everyday life:
1.As operators
In many real life situations you find a
percentage of an amount. For example,
if you buy something at 30% discount
you pay 70% of the usual price.
70% operates on the usual price, e.g.
70% of $60 is $42
2. As proportions
Percentages are often used to compare
two or more proportions. For example,
to compare two shooters in a netball
game you might convert the statistics
into percentages.
Selma gets 32 out of 40 shots so her
shooting percentage is 80%
Niki gets 33 out of 44 shots so her

Section 1: Mathematical Background

Page 5: Are percentages always less or
equal to 100%?
Most situations involve percentages
less than 100.
In a sale a percentage is taken off the
full price so you pay less than the full
price, less than 100%.
When you toss a coin at the start of a
sporting match your chances of
winning the toss are one-half or 50%.
Comparison situations can involve
percentages greater than 100%.
For example the price of a house was
$200,000 in 2000 and $280,000 in
2010.
Compared to the $200,000 the house
is now worth 140% of what it was in

Section 2: Activity
Page 1:
What is a percentage?
Write 35% on the board.
What does this mean?
Discuss this in small groups of 3-4 learners.
Record the ideas from each group as they
report back.
Discuss things like:
% means out of one hundred (/ means
divide by, 00 comes from 100)
Per means for every, Cent means one
hundred, e.g. Century is 100 years or 100 runs
35% is less than one half but bigger than one
quarter because 50% is one half and 25% is
one quarter
35% is about one third because one third is
33.3%
35% of something, what is the something?
(Whole needs to be given, e.g. 120 kg)

Section 2: Activity
Page 2: When do we use percentages (examples)?
Provide each group of learners with a copy of copymaster 1.
This provides possible real life situations in which percentages may
be involved.
Ask the learners:
How might percentages occur in each of these situations?
Can you think of other situations in which percentages are used?
Share the ideas from each group.
Important points are:
Percentages are used in situations where the whole varies, e.g.
Goalkickers take different numbers of shots, people borrow different
amounts of money.
Percentages can be more than 100% in comparison situations, e.g.
Lambing percentages are usually between 150-200% where the
number of lambs is compared to the number of ewes
Percentages must be no more than 100% in out of situations,
25in netball.
e.g. Jenny goals 35 out of 60 shots
100
Percentages are special types of fractions with denominators

Section 2: Activity
Page 3: Common Percentages
Provide the learners with one strip of 100 beads (Copymaster 2).

Ask, How many beads are one the string in total?

What has this got to do with percentages?
Percentages are out of 100 and this is a model of fractions out of
100.
Pose the following problems and tell the learners to label their strip
as they go:
1.What percentage is all of something? (Label 100%)
2.What percentage is nothing of something? (Label 0%)
3.What10%percentage
is30%
one half
of something?
(Label
50%)80%
0%
20%
40%
50%
60%
70%
90%
4.Find some other percentages that you know the fractions for?
0

1
10

1
4

1
2

3
4

100%

Section 2: Activity

Page 4: Percentage to Fraction

Snap
Play a game of snap with cards
made from copymaster 3.
This game is designed to practise
simple percentage to fraction
knowledge.
Points that may arise:
Nine tenths is one tenth less than
the whole. This is because the
whole is ten tenths. So nine tenths
is 90% (100% - 10%)
Four fifths is one fifth less than
the whole. This is because the
whole is five fifths. So four fifths is
80% (100% - 20%)
33.3% is another name for one
third. This is because 100 3 =

Section 2: Activity
Page 5
Finding a percentage using place value knowledge.
To find 10% is the same as dividing by 10.
When we divide be 10 the number gets 10 times smaller.
The digits move one place to the right, e.g. 46 10 =
4.6
hundred
tens
ones
tenths
hundred
s

10

ths
4

6
4

100%
10%

Use this method to find 10% of:

Find 10% of:
80
75
136
589
Ask learners to find 5% of 24
Record students methods.
Look for methods such as finding 10% then halving to
find 5%

1%

Section 2: Activity
Page 5
Finding a percentage using place value knowledge.
To find 1% is the same as dividing 10% by 10.
When we divide be 10 the number gets 10 times smaller.
The digits move one place to the right, e.g. 46 10 =
4.6
hundred
tens
ones
tenths
hundred
s
ths
10
4
6
10

Use this method to find 10% of:

Find 1% of:
80
75
136
589
Ask learners to find 3% of 24
Record students methods.
Look for methods such as finding 10% then dividing by

10%
1%

Section 2: Activity
Page 6: Finding percentages of something
Present this problem to your learners or pose a
problem with the same numbers but a different story.
Kegs hold 50 litres of beer.
There is 10% allowance for wastage. What a shame!
How much beer is wasted out of each keg?
Note: Wastage is loss of beer through pouring
overflow, clearing the hose lines when kegs are
changed and the beer left behind in the keg.
Ask the learners to solve the problem and share their
strategies.
For example, I know that 10% is one tenth and one
tenth of 50 is 5 litres or 10% is ten out of 100 so it
must be 5 out of 50 litres.
Present the problem using the strip diagram
(Copymaster 4).
0%

50%

10%

10

20

30

100%

40

50

Section 2: Activity

Page 7: Practice Examples

Refer to Section Three, problem examples 1 - 3, for your students
to practise the ideas introduced so far.
You will need to run off copies of Copymaster 4 for your students to
use.

Section 2: Activity
Page 8: Adding on GST
Ask your learners what they understand by
GST (Goods and Service Tax).
The total price you pay for any item includes
net price, mark up and GST.
Net price

Mark up

GST

Net price is how much the shop pays for the

item and the mark up is the profit the shop
makes. These two parts add up to the shop
price.
GST is charged on top of the shop price at a
rate of 15%.
15% of shop
price

Shop price

GST

Section 2: Activity

Adding on GST
GST is 15%
To add on GST we can mentally workout 10% plus
5%.
Look at the following example:
Item costs $200

GST = $30

100%
15%
115%
We can also calculate the GST inclusive price by
multiplying the 200 by 1.15. 200
x
1.15 =
$230

Section 2: Activity

Pose the following problems:

Before GST is added the
bottle of milk costs $4.00.
How much do you pay for the
milk after GST is added on?

10%
0%

10
%

20
%

30
%

40
%

50
%

$4.0
0

60
%

70
%

80
%

90
%

100%

40c

20
c

5%

Section 2: Activity
Practice Examples
Refer to Section Three, problem
examples 4-5, for your students to
practise the ideas introduced so far.

Section 3: Examples
Page 1: Shopping Spree
Mareea wants to buy a top that usually costs $60
The shop has a 20% off sale.
How much will Mareea save?
How much will she pay for the top?

0%

10
%

20
%

10

50
%

20

30

80
%

40

100
%

50

60

Section 3: Examples

Page 2: Horsing Around

A horse eats about 60% of its own
body weight each month.
This horse weighs 550 kilograms.
How much does it need to eat this
month?

Section 3: Examples

Page 3: Credit Crunch

Warren has $1760 owing on
his credit card.
He pays 18% interest per
month on what he owes.
How much will Warren pay in
interest this month if he does
not pay anything off his card.

Section 3: Examples

Page 4: Credit Crunch

The shop price of a pair of
jeans is $120.
Add the GST and find out how
much you pay for these jeans.

Section 3: Examples

Page 5: Honest Phils Car

Dealership
The shop price of a car you
want is $13,500
Honest Phil forgot to tell you
about the GST.
How much GST needs to be
added?

Section 4: Assessment

Page 1: Shoes
At Shoes 4 Less there is a 25% off sale.
This pair of shoes normally costs $160.
How much will the shoes cost on sale?

Section 4: Assessment

Page 2: Weed Spraying

The instructions say that the
spray should be 80% water and
20% concentrate.
Your sprayer takes 5 litres of
liquid.
How much water should you put
in before topping it up with
concentrate?

Section 4: Assessment

Page 3: Brakes
Ralph has fixed your car brakes.
The bill is $280 but GST has to be
added.
What will the total bill be?