Interpreting negative numbers

The topic  appears under the 7th Grade Math Mission. This exercise provides practice with real life contexts of integers.

Types of Problems
There are two types of problems in this exercise:


 * 1) Write the answer as either positive or negative: This problem provides a word problem where the number can be interpreted as positive or negative. The student is expected to determine the correct interpretation and type it in the space provided.Inn1.png
 * 2) Interpret the balance correctly: This problem provides a situational word problem and a value for the problem. The student is asked to select the correct interpretation of that value in the context of the problem. The student will select from a multiple choice list.Inn2.png

Strategies
A working model of negatives (for example a number line and viewing opposite as reflection over zero) can help with this problem.
 * 1) On the first problem type, the interpretation is almost always clear from the final sentence. Write the number and the sign that the sentence is implying.
 * 2) In the first twenty problems, the Interpret the balance correctly problem always asked for an interpretation of a zero balance. There is no reason this will stay, but at least at this time it means one needs to find the interpretation that implies "no change."