I’ve been looking at how to teach percentage increase and decrease at Key Stage 3. If you can find 20%, you can obviously increase by 20% by adding it on. But does this reinforce the misconception that percentages are an addition, rather than multiplicative, function? I’ve started teaching multipliers for increase and decrease to a wider range of pupils, so it makes sense to introduce the concept earlier. I’ve used finding 120% as a way to increase by 20%. It opens up discussion as to why this works and pupils can form their own ideas on how to decrease.
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To reinforce and practice the idea of increase and decrease by percentages I’ve created some ‘Muppets’ themed Top Trumps cards (not licensed). You can download them here: Muppets Top Trumps (pdf)
There are only eight cards, but you could print out one set per pupil and shuffle them.
The Standards Unit material N7 available at the link below is excellent. Well thought out and stimulates great discussion in groups.
http://www.mrbartonmaths.com/resources/standard%20unit%20pdfs/SU%20Number%20lessons/N7%20-%20Percentage%20Increase.pdf