Conversions Rock!

Rocking Students with Ratios, Percentages and Fractions

Get ready to rock your middle school students with Conversions Rock, the third in a series of award-winning, free math enhancement programs from The Actuarial Foundation designed and originally distributed by Scholastic, that help improve achievement scores and get kids excited about math. Actuaries contributed to and oversaw the development of the math applications used in the program and all lessons align with NCTM standards.

The Conversions are a fictional rock band of middle school-age kids with a knack for numbers that’s helping them navigate their way to stardom. Conversions Rock helps students improve their math skills through exciting examples of how to convert fractions into decimals and percents and vice versa. Using fractions, Conversions guitarist Nikki helps divide pizza and hit CD proceeds equally among the band members; Dezzy, the drummer, uses decimals to figure out band logistics and answer travel questions; and lead singer Bailey helps the band budget its money. Each packet contains user-friendly instructions, lesson plans and classroom materials for 31 students.

In addition to sponsoring the program, The Actuarial Foundation promotes the use of local volunteer actuary mentors to teach the lessons in the classroom. More than teachers, they serve as real-life examples for students of how to use math in the “real world” and how to turn math proficiency into an exciting and interesting career.

TEACHERS: Contact the Foundation at asa@actfnd.org to have an actuary present the Conversions Rock! program to your classroom.

ACTUARIES: Download a copy and present it to a classroom or school in your area!

View or download these lesson plans and reproducibles:

Poster
Teaching Guide and Activities
Additional Classroom Activities
Family Activity Pages

Scholastic is the world's largest publisher and distributor of children's books and a leader in educational technology. Scholastic creates quality educational and entertaining materials and products for use in school and at home, including children's books, magazines, technology-based products, teacher materials, television programming, film, videos and toys. The company distributes its products and services through a variety of channels, including proprietary school-based book clubs, school-based book fairs, school-based and direct-to-home continuity programs; retail stores, schools, libraries and television networks; and the company's Internet site, Scholastic.com.

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