Money Math · Lesson Plan

Airfare Costs and Discounts

Airline sales are a natural way to practice discounts as fractions. This lesson shows students how to convert a percent off into a fraction, use that fraction to find both the sale fare and the dollars saved, and then scale the answer to a round trip. Worked airfare examples lead into a twelve-question worksheet with a full answer key.

Grades 6–9 Lesson Plan 30–45 minutes Free Lesson Plan Lesson & Worksheet: Full Membership

For Teachers

Lesson at a glance

Topic: Money Math
Grade Level: Grades 6–9
Resource Type: Lesson + Worksheet
Estimated Time: 30–45 minutes
Format: Lesson + worksheet + answer key
Materials: Printable lesson, worksheet, answer key, calculator

What Students Learn

Learning objectives

Convert a percent discount into a fraction in lowest terms
Identify the fraction of the original price a shopper still pays
Use a fraction to calculate a discounted airfare
Find the dollar amount saved by subtracting the sale price from the original price
Scale a one-way fare and its savings to a round trip

Materials

What you’ll need

Printed copies of the lesson and worksheet (one per student)
Calculators
Pencils
Whiteboard or projector for worked examples

Key Terms

Vocabulary

Discount: An amount taken off the original price.
Fractional discount: A percent off rewritten as a fraction and used to calculate.
Fare: The price of an airline ticket.
One-way fare: The price to fly in one direction only.
Round trip: A flight out and back — twice the one-way fare.
Amount of savings: The original price minus the sale price.

For Teachers

Lesson plan

Estimated time: one 30–45 minute class period.

Lesson sequence

Introduction (5 min). Ask who has seen an airline advertise “20% off fares.” Establish that a percent off can also be written as a fraction, and that sometimes the fraction is easier to work with.
Convert and calculate (12 min). Work the lesson example: a $450 fare cut by 20%. Convert 20% to 1/5, find the fraction still paid (4/5), and calculate the new fare. Then find the savings by subtracting the sale fare from the original.
Round trips (5 min). Show that a round trip is two one-way fares, so both the fare and the savings double.
Worksheet (15 min). Students work twelve airfare-discount problems.
Review (8 min). Check answers with the key, focusing on students who found the discount but reported it as the sale price.

Assessment

Assess the completed worksheet against the included answer key.

Discussion

Discussion questions

Why can a percent off always be rewritten as a fraction?
If a fare is 10% off, what fraction of the price does a traveler still pay?
Why does doubling a one-way fare also double the savings?
When is it easier to use a fraction than a percent to find a discount?
How would you check that a sale fare you calculated is reasonable?

Printable Lesson, Worksheet & Answer Key