PROJECT POPCORN
Author: Laura Driscoll
Illustrator: Shirley Ng-Benitez
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Number of pages: 32
Publisher: Kane Press (USA) First published in: 2017 Format: Picturebook Is the mathematical focus explicit in the story? Yes Is this story part of a mathematics story series? Yes (Math Matters) Preview and/or purchase this book on the Amazon websites: UK, USA, AUS, CAN Synopsis by the author/publisher
The Community Champs have an extra-special fundraiser this yeardonating Thanksgiving dinners to families in need. William and Lizzie are on a mission to sell more popcorn tins than ever before! |
“The next day, they spread out all of Mr. C's notes on William's kitchen table. "Look!" William said. "This graph shows how many tins we each sold over our first weekend of fundraising last year."”
Official review by MathsThroughStories.org:
Laura Driscoll’s ‘Project Popcorn’ (2017) is one of the brand new titles in Kane Press’s Math Matter series, and one of only a few mathematical stories in the market with an explicit focus on mean, median, mode and range. Through the story, William and Lizzie demonstrate how the different types of average and range could be meaningfully applied in different situations to help them maximise their popcorn sale. Reason? They are fundraising to buy baskets of Thanksgiving meals for families in need! The illustrations by Shirley Ng-Benitez are charming with characters representing different ethnicities and genders. What we particularly like is how the story also includes a child character in a wheelchair – arguably the first such character in any mathematical stories – who also tries to contribute to the fundraising effort. The mathematical visualisation is accurate. While Thanksgiving is a key theme in the story, it is not celebrated around the world. Teachers and parents of children who are not familiar with it can thus use this story to introduce them to this tradition as part of exploring celebrations around the world. As with other titles in the Math Matters series, useful teaching activity ideas are offered at the back. All in all, we highly recommend ‘Project Popcorn’. Recommended for children aged 8+ years old.
Recommended age range:
8+ years old
Relevant mathematics topics:
Data Handling
Possible teaching activities:
At MathsThroughStories.org, we believe that stories can be meaningfully incorporated in mathematics teaching in different ways. Thus, we are inviting you to share your experience of how you have used this story in your mathematics lesson with other members of the community. By sharing your experience with us, you will be added to our team of On-line Contributors here, where you can also find our submission guideline.
Laura Driscoll’s ‘Project Popcorn’ (2017) is one of the brand new titles in Kane Press’s Math Matter series, and one of only a few mathematical stories in the market with an explicit focus on mean, median, mode and range. Through the story, William and Lizzie demonstrate how the different types of average and range could be meaningfully applied in different situations to help them maximise their popcorn sale. Reason? They are fundraising to buy baskets of Thanksgiving meals for families in need! The illustrations by Shirley Ng-Benitez are charming with characters representing different ethnicities and genders. What we particularly like is how the story also includes a child character in a wheelchair – arguably the first such character in any mathematical stories – who also tries to contribute to the fundraising effort. The mathematical visualisation is accurate. While Thanksgiving is a key theme in the story, it is not celebrated around the world. Teachers and parents of children who are not familiar with it can thus use this story to introduce them to this tradition as part of exploring celebrations around the world. As with other titles in the Math Matters series, useful teaching activity ideas are offered at the back. All in all, we highly recommend ‘Project Popcorn’. Recommended for children aged 8+ years old.
Recommended age range:
8+ years old
Relevant mathematics topics:
Data Handling
Possible teaching activities:
At MathsThroughStories.org, we believe that stories can be meaningfully incorporated in mathematics teaching in different ways. Thus, we are inviting you to share your experience of how you have used this story in your mathematics lesson with other members of the community. By sharing your experience with us, you will be added to our team of On-line Contributors here, where you can also find our submission guideline.
