Actuarial Math

I was watching an elementary basketball game and wondered if there was a place I could incorporate information on Actuarial Math.  Since I teach in a very small place with few job opportunities other than working at the store, for the city or for the school, I want them to see possible jobs. 

When I was in college, I never thought about being an actuarial person.  I went for a straight math degree. 

I found this website Be an Actuary.  It talks about what it takes to become an Actuary, sample problems from previous exams, how its used in real life and a lot more information. 

The Actuarial Foundation has quite a few free activities for grades 4 to 12 that deal with actuarial math.  For instance, there is a lovely activity for ratios and unit rate for grades 6 to 8.  It deals with designing a water treatment plant.  It comes with the lesson plans, the interactive component where students apply ratios to scale designs of a baseball stadium, an amusement park, and an aquarium. In addition, it comes with the three worksheets for the unit.  It is a great unit on patterns and functions.

This section has lessons to cover algebra, combinatorics, data and statistics, financial literacy, fractions, decimals, and percents, geometry, graphics, and probability for grades 6 to 8 and other material for grades 9 to 12 including

 Science Buddies has some step projects that could easily be incorporated into the classroom.  These projects come with everything needed.  Some of the topics include, dice probabilities, estimation and population size, frequency of outcomes in a small number of trials, how do baseball stadium dimensions affect batting statistics, and several other topics that are worth investigating.

This is a nice way to show how mathematics is used in real life and using information from either of the first two sites, students can learn how the math they study prepares them for a career in this field.  People in this field can earn between $100,000 and $250,000 a year. 

Have fun.