Basketball toss – Paul's challenge

Stage 3 – A thinking mathematically context for practise focussed on interpreting, analysing and reasoning with data

Syllabus

Syllabus outcomes and content descriptors from Mathematics K–10 Syllabus © NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) for and on behalf of the Crown in right of the State of New South Wales, 2023

Outcomes

Stage 3

MAO-WM-01
MA3-DATA-02

Instructions

This graph shows the number of baskets Paul scored when he was playing basketball toss with his sister. How many points did Paul score in total?

a) 9 and a half

b) 19

c) 16

d) 8

a graph showing 4.5 balls, 2.5 balls, 1.5 balls and 1 ball, with one ball representing 2 baskets

Discussion

Paul decided that he wanted to improve his score and beat his sister the next time they played. He spent a lot of time practising using his left hand, playing backwards and with his eyes closed.
When he competed against his sister the next time, his efforts had worked! He had improved his score and he beat his sister! He scored 33 baskets. Paul had the same success with his right hand and improved by 1 with his eyes closed.
How many baskets might he have scored with his left hand and backwards? What are all the possibilities?

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Jump! What if? Stage 2

Stage 2 – A thinking mathematically targeted teaching opportunity focussed on developing flexible multiplicative strategies to calculate distance

Basketball toss – Stage 2 and 3

Stage 2 and 3 – A thinking mathematically context for practise focussed on collecting, representing and analysing data on length