Numeracy and maths

Authored or co-authored by Dave Tout, these publications are designed to develop the numeracy skills of learners.

Resources to support VCE Vocational Major

Finances and gambling

Students will develop the mathematical skills used for managing household and living expenses. Using activities and worksheets, students will learn to interpret household utility bills and create a personal budget. Students will also explore the financial harm that gambling can cause to individuals, families, and the wider community.

This resource, developed for the Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation, addresses the learning outcomes from Unit 1 of VCE VM Numeracy.

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What are the chances?

This resource, developed for the Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation, addresses the learning outcomes in Unit 2 Numeracy of VCE Vocational Major.

Students will explore chance and probability to help them develop informed attitudes toward gambling. The unit’s interactive activities are designed to introduce students to the concepts and language of probability and chance and shows them how to interpret odds. Analysis of real-world data is used to illustrate how much Victorians lose to gambling, highlighting the reality that people are more likely to lose money.

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Earnings, Expenditure and Gambling

Students will learn some of the key things they need to know about getting their first job including paying tax, superannuation, government allowances, workplace rights and payslips. Throughout the unit, students will access national data to investigate how much Australians earn on average, and what impact gambling expenditure has on Australians.

This resource addresses VCE Vocational Major Unit 3 Numeracy. It was developed for the Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation.

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Odds and probability

Students will do a deep dive into the way gambling really works. Students learn about the randomness of gambling and experience the difficulty of predicting outcomes. They will explore first hand how betting agencies design products to maximise their own profits and learn to think critically about gambling advertising.

This resource, developed for the Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation, addresses the learning outcomes in Unit 4 Numeracy of VCE Vocational Major.

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Consumer Stuff – Maths

This resource addresses particular consumer and financial issues that affect young people today.
Each section addresses a different issue. It contains a series of applied learning, practical activities, investigations and lessons suitable for secondary school students, including VCE and VCAL classes (suitable for VC VM).
The resource was originally produced by Consumer Affairs

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The word on cars

by Dave Tout and Philippa McLean
A literacy and numeracy resource based around owning, driving and running a car.

Activities include car-related numbers, speed, data and graphs, time and parking, petrol and car-related costs, and writing about and reviewing cars. There are also cooperative logic problems.

Originally published 2008.

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Football rules

by Dave Tout and Philippa McLean
A literacy and numeracy resource based around Australian Rules Football.
Activities include views and opinions of sport, surveys and statistics, researching the game, scoring and ladders, reporting on a game and football tipping.
Originally published 2008.

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Rethinking Assessment: Strategies for Holistic Adult Numeracy Assessment

By Beth Marr, Sue Holme and Dave Tout

Rethinking Assessment is both a practical and theoretical resource. It discusses key assessment issues, provides a bank of models of good practice in assessment and demonstrates how holistic assessment can be undertaken within the assessment criteria of accredited frameworks. Suggested observation and recording sheets are included where appropriate and samples of student responses are discussed.

Originally published by Language Australia in 2003.

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Calm down! Speed and traffic treatments investigation

Road to Zero is a world leading road safety experience situated at Melbourne Museum, Victoria .It features the latest visual and digital technology to show secondary school students and the wider community how Victoria is moving towards a future where every journey is a safe one.

This numeracy resource is designed to support Unit 3 Numeracy in VCE Vocational Major. It supports the Road to Zero experience but could be used by any numeracy and maths teacher keen to get across road safety messages.

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