Baseball jerseys

This resource features a task that explores the use of equations in a practical context.

The task considers ordering jerseys for a baseball team. Two companies are approached and their costings are given. Students set up equations to model the costs. Having done this the problem becomes one of determining the number of jerseys to order for one company to become more cost effective over the other.

The lesson assumes some familiarity with setting up equations from practical situations and makes an ideal complement to the lesson ‘Interpreting equations’.

A full rubric is given for the task, together with examples of student work. The student work has scores given, together with suggestions for questions to address misconceptions.

This task is from the Mathematics Assessment Resource Service, a collaboration between UC Berkeley and the Shell Centre team at the University of Nottingham. A full rubric is given for the task, together with examples of student work and suggestions for helping students overcome misconceptions. Further information on the collection is given here.