What argument might the principal at East present to the sponsors to convience them to give the award to her school?

Question

Marathon City held a walkathon to raise money for charity. Of the 500 students at East Middle School,200 participated in the walkathon. At West Middle school,150 of the 325 students participated. The sponsors of the walkathon plan to give an award to the middle school with the greater participation.

 

 

Question 2: What argument might the principal at West make to convince the sponsors to give the award to his school?

 

Question 3:Which school do you think deserves the award? Defend your choice.

Answer 1

The key to this is how you want to define "greater participation".

 

Question 1:  The East principal can say "Hey!  We had 200 students  participate.  West had only 150.  200 is greater than 150, so we had greater participation."

 

Question 2:  The West principal can say "Now hold on just a second.  46% (150/325) of our students participated, but only a triflin' 40% (200/500) of East's students participated.  So we win."

 

Question 3: This is up to you.  As long as you defend your choice, either East or West can be correct.