Mathematical Modeling: Furnishing the apartment

Pose Questions

Your family is moving into a brand new apartment. There is no furniture in it. Your parents told you that you can furnish your room as you would like. You have a budget of $1,500 that can be spent only in Ikea. Can you plan the shopping list, so that your room is fully furnished and ready to move in?

Information gathered

Total amount of money: $1,500.

Shopping place: Ikea.

Assumptions and Constrains

Students will assume what kind of furniture they need to fully furnish the room. They will also decide what furniture is necessary for living.

Then students will go to the Ikea website and choose the furniture they need, keeping in mind that in sum the furniture cannot cost more than $1,500.

Build Solutions

Students will create a list of the furniture items with their prices. The total price must be less or equal $1,500. The list must include all necessary for living items.

Students might create:

• Pictures (plan of the room);
• Tables (items with prices).

Validate Conclusions

Students will check that (1) total amount of money needed to purchase all the items from their list is less or equal $1,500; and (2) all necessary for living items are included.

SOL Math:

5.5 The student will a) find the sum, difference, product, and quotient of two numbers expressed as decimals through thousandths (divisors with only one nonzero digit).