7th Grade Math Lesson
The Restaurant Receipt: Tax, Tip, and the True Total
Shared by A STEM Educator
7th Grade3-Act Math50 min
Learning Objective
Students will solve multi-step percent problems involving sales tax, gratuity, and retail markups by applying percent multipliers and reasoning about whether the sequence of percent operations changes the final result.
Lesson Overview
Students use a restaurant receipt scenario to explore multi-step percent problems involving tax, tip, and markups, discovering how order of operations affects (or doesn't affect) the final price.
Materials
- Paper and pencils
- Whiteboard and markers
- Basic calculator or phone calculator
Scaffolded Task Progression
1Task 1
The food subtotal is 46 dollars. Without a calculator, estimate: What will the final bill be after adding about 8% tax and a 20% tip? Record a 'too low,' 'too high,' and 'best guess.' Then estimate each person's share for a group of four.
2Task 2
Calculate a 15% tip on a 40-dollar dinner bill using mental math benchmark percents. Show your thinking without a calculator.
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