Every year a carnival comes to Hallie's town. The price of tickets to ride the rides has gone up every year.
| Year | Ticket Price |
| 2008 | $2.00 |
| 2009 | $2.50 |
| 2010 | $3.00 |
| 2011 | $3.50 |
| 2012 | $4.00 |
- In 2008, Hallie’s allowance was $9.00 a month. How many carnival tickets could she buy with one month's allowance?
- If her allowance had stayed the same, $9.00 a month, how many carnival tickets could she buy in 2012?
- In 2012, Hallie’s allowance was $14.00 per month. How much did her monthly allowance increase between 2008 and 2012?
- How much more did a carnival ticket cost in 2012 than it did in 2008?
- Was Hallie able to buy more carnival tickets in 2008 or in 2012 with one month's allowance?
- What would Hallie's allowance need to be in 2012 in order for her to be able to buy as many carnival tickets as she could in 2008?
- What happens to your ability to buy things if prices increase and your allowance doesn’t increase?
Commentary
The purpose of this task is for students to solve multi-step problems in a context involving a concept that supports financial literacy, namely inflation. Inflation is a sustained increase in the average price level. In this task, students can see that if the price level increases and people’s incomes do not increase, they aren’t able to purchase as many goods and services; in other words, their purchasing power decreases. If the price level rises and people’s incomes increase at a slower rate, their purchasing power increases but not as much as if their income increases at the same rate as the cost of goods and services. This task is a variation on another task 6.NS Movie tickets that also addresses inflation.
From a mathematical perspective, students are asked to solve word problems involving operations only with whole numbers because students are not required in fourth grade to compute with decimal numbers. However, they are asked to understand decimal notation for fractions with denominators of 10 and 100 (see 4.NF.6) and so this task capitalizes on this by representing whole numbers with decimal notation and including dollar amounts that are not whole numbers in the table. Also, students in 4th grade should be comfortable with two-column tables (see e.g. 4.MD.1), so this task gives them some practice reading information in a table. Note that the numbers were chosen specifically so that there would be remainders for them to interpret (as described in 4.OA.3).
This task is part of a set collaboratively developed with Money as You Learn, an initiative of the President’s Advisory Council on Financial Capability. Integrating essential financial literacy concepts into the teaching of the Common Core State Standards can strengthen teaching of the Common Core and expose students to knowledge and skills they need to become financially capable young adults. A mapping of essential personal finance concepts and skills against the Common Core State Standards as well as additional tasks and texts will be available at http://www.moneyasyoulearn.org.