Section 2

Discover

 

The following Try This activity lets you explore the ratio of lifeguards to swimmers.

 

Try This 1

 

Use Kids at the Pool to help answer the questions that follow.

 

1. What is the ratio of swimmers to lifeguards?
   
   
2. If the pool is at its capacity of 500 swimmers, what is the minimum number of lifeguards the pool manager must have on deck? Complete a chart like the one that follows.
   
   

   Lifeguards	Swimmers
   2	50
   4	100
   	200
   	300
   	400
   	500

   
   
3. Examine the numbers in the table. Can you see a way to use the 1:25 lifeguards-to-swimmers ratio to help find the ratio when the pool is full to capacity (x:500)? Describe a strategy you could use to answer this question without the table.

Save your responses to your course folder.

 

Share 1

Compare your answers to Try This 1 with a partner or with a group of people. How did the different strategies compare for question 3?

• Make a list of all the strategies used.
  
  
• Did anyone use a similar strategy to your own?
  
  
• Test each strategy by finding the number of lifeguards required for 1000 swimmers.
  
  
• Which strategies worked? Do you prefer one strategy over another?

Save the list of strategies to your course folder for future reference.