Week 1

In her first week of cycling, Ms. Melissa recorded the following distances:

Day 1: 107 km

Day 2: 120 km

Day 3: 116 km

Day 4: 144 km

Day 5:  95 km

Day 6:  120 km

Day 7:  98 km

 

How many total kilometers did Ms. Melissa ride after her first week? Challenge: If she planned on riding 80 kilometers every day, did she ride more or less kilometers than she has planned?

 

Week 2 

Ms. Melissa has 2 different bike shorts, one short and the other long.  She also has four different cycling tops, 2 tank tops, green and blue, and 2 short sleeve shirts, pink and purple. Everyday she wears the same shoes.  How many different cycling outfits can Ms. Melissa wear?  Explain your thinking with a drawing or written explanation.

 

Week 3 

When planning her route, Ms. Melissa estimated riding about 80 kilometers a day.  Every sixth day is a rest day.  About how many kilometers can Ms. Melissa ride in a week?  In a month?  Challenge: How many kilometers does Ms. Melissa plan to ride by the end of her 14 months?

 

Week 4

In France, Ms. Melissa paid about 2,40 € for a double scoop ice cream cone.  When she got to Italy, the land of gelato, a double scoop of ice cream was normally1,50€.  How much cheaper is ice cream in Italy than France? 

 

 

Week 5

In Slovenia, the kilometer markers on the roads are different.  It is hard to tell total kilometers because they only record distances starting from the last village you passed.  Therefore I’m constantly adding and subtracting numbers in my head as I ride.  Today I went from Kranj to Skofja Loka, and then to Ljubljana.  I calculated about 35 km total.  If there are 11 km from Kranj to Skofja Loka, how many km are there from Skofja Loka to Ljubljana?

 

Week 6

This weekend grape picking, I was told the small vineyard had about 600 kg of grapes.  From the 600 kg of grapes, they could make 400L of wine.  If we only picked half of the grapes on the vineyard, how much wine could we make?  Challenge: How many kilograms of grapes would they need to make 1000L of wine? 

 

Week 7

I’ve realized that in order to pedal 100 km a day, one of the ways to take care of myself is resting plenty at night.  I need at least 8 hours of sleep a day.  If I wake up at 6:30 in the morning, what time do I need to be in bed in order to get eight hours of sleep?

 

Week 8

It’s my birthday this week, in fact today, Monday the 14th.  Here’s a number sense riddle to try and guess my age. 

It’s a two digit number.  The digit in the tens place is smaller than the digit in the ones

place.  The sum of the digits is an odd number.  The ones digit is an even number. 

The product of my digits is 12.  How old am I?

 

Week 9

I’ve been through 12 different European countries and drank a lot of coffee out at restaurants and cafes!  What can I say, I like a warm drink in the morning!  Have a look at the table on my statistics page on my website http://www.theloongwayhome.com/#!statistics/c1g09 and put the price of coffee in order from cheapest to most expensive.

 

Week 10

On the road, I get a lot of cars honking at me.  Usually, about 2 out of every 8 cars that pass me, honk.  In Turkey, however, even more cars honk, about 4 out of every 6.  If 40 cars pass me, how many honks would that be typically?  If I were riding in Turkey, how many cars of those 40 would honk?

 

Week 11 & 12

I’m blown away by how cheap things cost in China, especially food!  Use the exchange rate of 1 Euro to 8 Chinese Yuan Renminbi to figure out some of the prices of the items I buy on a daily basis.

 

Item	Price (Euro)	Price (Chinese Yuan)
Water		3
Stir Fry Lunch		6
Big Bowl of Soup		4
Hotel Room		80

 

Week 13 &14

I’ve been doing a lot of climbing ever since I hit the mountains in Northern Vietnam.  Use my elevation gain data below to first round the elevation gain to the nearest ten, then use the rounded value to graph the different elevation gains.  Which type of graph would make the most sense?  What will be your x and y values.

Date	Actual Elevation Gain (m)	Rounded Elevation Gain (m)
November 30	1,491
November 29	1,469
November 28	1,425
November 27	1,462
November 26	1,704
November 25	1,566
November 24	1,840
November 23	1,216

 

Week 15 & 16

Laos has been a delightful surprise for cycling.  There are great roads and few cars using them.  I’ve been noticing the cars that pass me and it seems there are two popular car companies in Laos.  Yesterday, I observed twenty cars that passed me.  Of those twenty cars, 10 were Hyundai, 8 were Toyota, and 2 were other companies.  What fraction of the cars that passed me were Hyundai?  Toyota? And other companies? Write your fraction in simplest form. 

Challenge: According to my observations, if 100 cars passed me, how many would be Toyota?

 

Week 17 & 18

Before coming to SE Asia, I had never tried jackfruit before.  I absolutely love it! However, many people don’t because it is such a sticky fruit and you have to work hard at getting the edible fruit out of all the fibers on the inside of a thick bumpy skin.  It is a quite expensive fruit in Cambodia and Laos, but cheaper in Vietnam.  A kilo of jackfruit is about 40 cents in Vietnam and up to 3 dollars in Cambodia.  Out of a kilo, only about 40% of the fruit is edible.  What fraction of the jack fruit is edible (Reduce your fraction to the simplest form).  

Challenge: What is the real price of only the edible parts of the jack fruit in Cambodia?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Week 19 & 20

On the restaurant menu’s in Malaysia there is always a variety of food representing the cultural diversity of the country.  1/4 of the menu is made up of drinks, 6/16 of the menu is made up of rice dishes, and 3/16 of the menu usually has their noodle selection.   The remaining dishes are usually fish options.  What fraction of a Malay menu has fish options?

 

Week 21 & 22

My SE Asia route has come to an end.  I have cycled 14, 253 kilometers in 167 days.  I visited a total of 22 countries so far, 8 of those in Asia.   According to my statistics, I sleep in hotels the most, take more warm showers than cold, and have had great luck with sunny days of biking.  Have a look at my statistics http://www.theloongwayhome.com/#!statistics/c1g09 and choose two tables to graph.  What type of graph best fits the data?  Carefully label your x and y-axis don’t forget to add color.

 

Week 23 & 24

In math, there are lots of ways to express and represent numbers. For instance, the number 5 can be represented using 5 one base 10 blocks, or with a mathematical expression 7-2. Do the same for the number 15,000. What are some different ways to represent this number?

 

Week 25 & 26

I’ve recently started purchasing powdered milk in New Zealand because the cartons are so big and I can’t drink them entirely at one meal. A 500 ml. jug of fresh milk costs around 3 New Zealand Dollars. A bag of powered milk costs 7 New Zealand Dollars, but I can make 4 litres of liquid milk. Which is a better deal, a bag of powder milk or a jug half-litre jug of fresh milk. Explain your reasoning.

 

Week 27 & 28

I had to change my chain at the end of my ride in New Zealand, when I had just reached 16,800 kilometers. The bike mechanics told me a new chain should last me about 1,500 to 2,000 kilometers. If this is true, at what kilometer should I start to look at my chain to see if I should replace it again? Challenge: If I ride 100 kilometers a day, how often should I be changing my chain?

 

Week 29 & 30

During my trip, I’ve been recording the money I spend every day. 40% of my expenses are on food, 30% on accommodation, 20% on flights, and the remaining 10% on gear. Make a pie chart to illustrate my spending. If I’ve spent 12,000 dollars on my trip so far, how much money has been spent on each of the 4 categories?

 

Week 31 &32

It makes me sad to say that 1 out of every 3 animals that I see in Australia is dead, on the side of the road. If I see 18 animals in one day, how many of those animals are alive? What fraction of the total are dead (reduce this fraction if possible)?

 

Week 33 &34

I’m wrapping up my route in Oceania. Look at the chart below and calculate the distances I have cycled in each continent. From the 3 continents I’ve cycled so far, where have I cycled the most? From the end of April to the middle of October I will be in North America. Estimate how many kilometers you think I will cycle in the 6 months I’ll be there.

 

Continent                                Total Trip KM                              Total KM in Continent

Europe                                           5,612                                                       5,612

Asia                                              13,827                                                          ?

Oceania                                        19,600                                                          ?

North America                              32,000 (predicted)                                        ?

 

 

Week 35 & 36

There are 50 states in The United States, 48 of them are contiguous.  I’m planning on traveling to 10 of them.  What fractions of the contiguous states will I visit?  What fraction of all The United States won’t I visit?  Remember to reduce your fraction. 

 

Week 37 & 38

This week I celebrated another milestone on my trip this week: 20,000 km (12,500 miles).  I am officially two-thirds of the way through my trip.  How many more kilometers am I intending to ride?  If it took me 8 months to ride 20,000 km, how long should it take me to ride the other third?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Week 39 & 40

I went to Las Vegas this week on my bike.  It is an unusual place in the world and known for casinos where people gamble.  Gambling is a risky hobby because the probability of winning is very low.  If your odds of winning any money are 1 out of 8 when you play a slot machine, then how many times might you “hit the jack pot” if you play 56 rounds.

 

Week 41 & 42

At the start of the trip, I estimated I would do about 30,000 kilometers.  So far I’ve done about 23,000 kilometers and I’ve been on the road for almost 10 months, which means I have 4 to go.  How many kilometers do you think I will do total.  Use the distance I’ve traveled so far and the time I’ve been cycling to make a prediction.  Show your work so that your logic behind your prediction can be understood.

 

Week 43 & 44

When it comes to the temperature outside, I’ve really experienced it all.  One day I was freezing cold in The Sequoia’s and the next I was burning up pedaling through Death Valley.  Choose a location, maybe your home town, or another place in the world that interests you and make a table plotting the average high and low temperatures throughout the year.  Then use this table to make a graph.  Which graph would represent the data the best?  Do you need to color code your information?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Please note from June 20th to September 1, 2014 The Teacher on Two Wheels is on Summer Vacation.  Please use my resources from the past 44 weeks over the summer holiday to keep you thinking!