Australian Curriculum links

Learning areas

Mathematics

Year 7

Express one quantity as a fraction of another, with and without the use of digital technologies (ACMNA155)

Round decimals to a specified number of decimal places (ACMNA156)

Connect fractions, decimals and percentages and carry out simple conversions (ACMNA157)

Find percentages of quantities and express one quantity as a percentage of another, with and without digital technologies (ACMNA158)

Recognise and solve problems involving simple ratios (ACMNA173)

Year 8

Solve problems involving the use of percentages, including percentage increases and decreases, with and without digital technologies (ACMNA187)

General capabilities

• Literacy
• Numeracy
• Information and communication technology capability
• Critical and creative thinking
   

Activity 1: What do the Millennium Development Goals measure?

Preparation

• Internet access to view films, infographics and interactives introducing the Millennium Development Goals Report 2013
• Caritas Blueprint for a better world
• Caritas United Nations Millennium Development Goals
• United Nations Millennium Development Goals multimedia

Calculate the number of people in your class (rounding appropriately) who would represent the 45% of the world's population living in poverty in 1990 if the whole class represents the population of the world.
Express this as a fraction of 100 and in its simplest form.
Show this as a diagram (ie draw a rectangle 5 cm x 2 cm; divide it into 20 equal parts of 0.5 cm x 1 cm; then colour 9 parts).

Calculate the number of people in your class who represent the 22% of the world's population who were living in poverty in 2013. 
Express this as a fraction of 100 and in its simplest form.
Show this as a diagram.

Calculate the percentage difference between 1990 and 2013
Express this as a fraction of 100 and in its simplest form.

View a film that depicts the world as a village of 100 people.

Record the ideas you have gained about poverty and equality using the following Recalls, Insights, Question (RIQ) strategy.

3 recalls: list three facts.
2 insights: state two ways the material is relevant for you as an individual.
1 question: ask one question arising from the information and insights.

Examine infographics outlining progress on the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.
Explore multimedia material introducing the Millennium Development Goals at Caritas, Blueprint for a better world. 
Make a statement about the importance of the Millennium Development Goals being measurable.

Read the goals and some of their targets below and list the data you would need to calculate the progress for these targets. (You can check your answer by examining the Statistical Annex: Millennium Development Goals, Targets and Indicators, 2013.)
 

Table showing the eight graphics and statements for the Millennium Development Goals and selected targets

	MDG 1 Eradicate poverty and hunger Target 1.A: Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than $1.25 a day Target 1.C: Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger
	MDG 2 Achieve universal primary education Target 2.A: Ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling
	MDG 3 Promote gender equality and empower women Target 3.A: Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferably by 2005, and in all levels of education no later than 2015
	MDG4 Reduce child mortality Target 4.A: Reduce by two thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate
	MDG 5 Improve maternal health Target 5.A: Reduce by three quarters the maternal mortality ratio
	MDG 6 Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases Target 6.A: Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS Target 6.C: Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases
	MDG 7 Ensure environmental sustainability Target 7.C: Halve, by 2015, the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation
	MDG 8 Global partnership for development Target 8.B and 8.C: Address the special needs of least developed countries, landlocked developing countries and Small Island Developing States Target 8.E: In cooperation with pharmaceutical companies, provide access to affordable essential drugs in developing countries Target 8.F: In cooperation with the private sector, make available benefits of new technologies, especially information and communications

Discuss:

• Which goal appears to require the biggest change?

Justify your answer using appropriate numbers, percentages and fractions.

Extension

Caritas, Poverty quiz (PPT, 3.9 MB)

Activity 2: Tracking the world's progress

Preparation

• Statistical Annex: Millennium Development Goals, Targets and Indicators, 2013 

Use the following tables selected from the Statistical Annex: Millennium Development Goals, Targets and Indicators, 2013 to calculate statistics about the Millennium Development Goals.

Show your understanding of billions by completing the second row in Table 1.

Table 1: Population of the world

MDG 1: Eradicate poverty and hunger Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than $1.25 a day

Complete Table 2 with the following information:

• Calculate the percentage improvement for 1999, 2005 and 2010 (do your calculation without digital technology and then check using digital technology).
• State the percentage of the population living in poverty as a decimal. 
• State the percentage of the population living in poverty as a fraction.
• Calculate the number of people living below $1.25 per day for 1990, 1999, 2005 and 2010.

Table 2: Indicator 1.1 Population of developing world living below $1.25 purchasing power parity (PPP) per day

MDG 1: Eradicate poverty and hunger Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger

Complete Table 3 with the following information:

• Calculate the number of people who do not have the minimum amount of food required for 1990, 1999, 2005 (using the 2007–09 figures) and 2010.
• Calculate the percentage improvement for 1999–01, 2007–09 and 2010–12 (without digital technology and then check using digital technology).
• Calculate the percentage improvement needed to halve the percentage of people without enough food by 2015 (without digital technology and then check using digital technology).
• State the percentage of the population who do not have the minimum amount of food to eat as a decimal.
• State the percentage of the population who do not have the minimum amount of food to eat as a fraction.

Indicator 1.9 Population below minimum level of dietary energy consumption

MDG 2: Achieve universal primary education Ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling

Complete Table 4 with the following information:

• Calculate the total percentage of children enrolled in primary school (by adding the percentages for boys and girls and dividing by 2) for 1990, 2000 and 2011 (without digital technology and then check using digital technology).
• Calculate the difference between the percentage of boys and girls enrolled in primary school for 1990, 2000 and 2011 (without digital technology and then check using digital technology).
• Calculate the percentage improvement for boys and girls in 2000 and 2011 (without digital technology and then check using digital technology).
• Order the decimals from largest to smallest. Which group and when showed the most improvement?
• Calculate the percentage improvement for boys and girls required to meet the goal of ALL boys and girls enrolling in primary school by 2015. Is it likely that we will meet Goal 2 (that all boys and girls will be enrolled in primary school by the end of 2015) with the current percentage improvement?
• State the percentages as a decimal and a simple fraction. 

Indicator 2.1 Percentage of boys and girls in the world enrolled in primary education

MDG 4: Reduce child mortality Reduce by two thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate

Complete Table 5 with the following information:

• Calculate the under-five mortality rate using the whole world figure, developing regions and developed regions.
• Calculate the fraction of improvement for each of the three regions for 1990–2000, 2000–12 and 1990–2012.
• Order the fractions from largest to smallest. Which region made the best progress and when?

Indicator 4.1 The number of children who die before reaching the age of five per 1,000 live births (Under-five mortality rate).

MDG 5: Improve maternal health Reduce by three quarters the maternal mortality ratio

Complete Table 6 with the following information:

• Calculate the maternal mortality ratio using the whole world figure, developing regions and developed regions.
• Calculate the fraction of improvement for each of the three regions for 1990–2000, 2000–12 and 1990–2012.
• Order them from largest to smallest. Which region made the best progress and when?

Indicator 5.1 Maternal deaths per 100,000 live births (Maternal mortality ratio)

MDG 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS

Complete Table 7 with the following information:

• Find the number of people newly infected by HIV for 2001 and 2011 (using the population figures of the world for 2000 and 2010).

Does the HIV incident rate indicate that one of the elements of Goal 6 (to halt and reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS) is on target to be achieved?

Indicator 6.1 Number of new HIV infections per year per 100 people aged 15–49 (HIV incidence rates)

MDG 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases

Complete Table 8 with the following information:

• Find the number of people newly infected with tuberculosis for 2002 and 2011 (using the population figures of the world for 1990, 2000 and 2010).

Do these indicate that one of the elements of Goal 6 (to halt and reverse the spread of 'other diseases') is on target to be achieved?

Table 8: Indicator 6.9 Number of new cases per 100,000 population, including HIV-infected (Incidence of tuberculosis

MDG 7: Ensure environmental sustainability Halve, by 2015, the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation

Complete Table 9 with the following information:

• Calculate the percentage of people without access to safe drinking water for the world, and for urban and rural areas.
• Calculate what half of this percentage would be (ie what is required to achieve Goal 7, to 'halve the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water').
• Calculate what fraction improvement was made between 1990 and 2011. 
• Which region made the best progress and when?
• Do these indicate that Goal 7 can be achieved by 2015?
• Calculate the number of people without access to safe drinking water for each category in the above table (using the population figures of the world for 1990 – 5.32 billion and 2010 – 6 billion).

Table 9: Indicator 7.8 Percentage of population using an improved drinking water source

Extension

Explore these statistics through Gapminder World.
View a presentation from 2007 about rates of progress (8 minutes 15 seconds).
 

Activity 3: Comparing progress in regions across the world

Preparation

• Statistical Annex: Millennium Development Goals, Targets and Indicators, 2013

Complete Table 10 with the following information:

• Calculate the percentage improvement of the population living with insufficient food for each region of the world.
• Write '1' in the final column of the region that made the most improvement.
• Write '14' in the final column of the region that made the least improvement.
• Complete the figures and order the regions from most to least improvement in the final column.
• Make an observation contrasting progress in two regions of the world.

Table 10: Indicator 1.9 Proportion of population below minimum level of dietary energy consumption (Percentage)

Source: Statistical Annex: Millennium Development Goals, Targets and Indicators, 2013

Complete Table 11 with the following information:

• Calculate the difference in the enrolment of boys and girls for each region of the world.
• Write '1' in the fourth column for 1990 and 2011 for the regions that had the least difference between boys and girls enrolled in primary school. 
• Write '14' in the fourth column for 1990 and 2011 for the regions that had the most difference between boys and girls enrolled in primary school. 
• Complete the figures and order the regions from least to most difference in the fourth columns for 1990 and 2011.
• Make an observation contrasting the change in enrolment of boys and girls in two regions. 
• Share your statement with the rest of the class for them to check.

Table 11: Indicator 2.1 Net enrolment ratio in primary education

Source: Statistical Annex: Millennium Development Goals, Targets and Indicators, 2013

Activity 4: Evaluating progress

Discuss:

• Which statistics did you find the most surprising? Why?

Create a three-column table showing which Millennium Development Goals have been achieved, are on track to be achieved or require more effort.

Create a graphic (you may like to use a free infographic tool) to show progress as described in the following statements:

Write a description of progress on one of the Millennium Development Goals from the perspective of:

• the Australian Government
• a tourist operator
• a person living in poverty in a rural area of a developing country.

Extension

The following websites have teaching materials and information about the Millennium Development Goals:

• Caritas Australia 
• Oxfam UK
• UNICEF

Source: Thanks to Caritas, Silvana Pavia, Fadi Elbarbar and St Monica's College, Epping