Max Maths, Year 6, Learn together, Word problems (2)

The Max Maths Year 6 curriculum includes a lesson that presents a practical application of addition in the context of solving word problems. In this particular problem, students are asked to calculate the total height when Han stands on top of his school stairs. The stairs have a height of 3.76 metres, and Han himself is 1.38 metres tall. The task is to find the sum of these two measurements to determine the total height when Han is at the top of the stairs.

To solve the problem, students are guided to use estimation as a first step, rounding the heights to the nearest tenth before adding them together, which gives an approximate result of 5.2 metres. After estimation, they perform the precise calculation by adding the exact heights: 3.76 metres for the stairs, plus 1.38 metres for Han's height, which equals 5.14 metres. The close proximity of the exact answer to the estimate confirms the reasonableness of the solution. Therefore, the total height when Han is standing on the top of the stairs is confirmed to be 5.14 metres.