Source: TV411: Episode 116
Funding for the VITAL/Ready to Teach collection was secured through the United States Department of Education under the Ready to Teach Program.
In this video segment from TV411, Franklin works with Laverne to create a budget for a painting job. Franklin is not sure if he should take on a job where he will be paid $250 for painting a friend’s family room. He must take into consideration the cost of supplies as well as how long the job will take him. He consults with Laverne and realizes he has to make some estimates to come up with the budget for the job.
Download and ShareHere are some Frame, Focus and Follow-up suggestions for using this video in a math lesson.
What is Frame, Focus and Follow-up?
Frame: Have you ever wondered if it was worthwhile to do a job for the amount of pay offered? To make a decision like that you would probably have to do some estimation. If you were offered $20 to cut a neighbor’s lawn, what kinds of things would you have to estimate to decide whether it was worth taking the job? How do you make a reasonable estimate? What’s the difference between an estimate and an exact calculation?
Focus: As you watch the film segment, note how Franklin is able to decide if he should take on the job. What amounts does he estimate? How does he figure out his profit? Does he have to round any numbers?
Follow Up: What amounts did Franklin estimate in order to decide if he could make a profit on this job? What mathematical operations did he use to make his decision? If you were offered $100 to clean a tile floor that has an area of 300 square feet, do you think you would do it? What would you need to know to make a decision? What estimates would you need to make? Could you give an example of a situation in which an estimate is useful? When would an exact calculation be more useful?
LAVERNE: Hi, can I help you find something?
MAN: Well, I'm trying to figure out which paint to buy.
LAVERNE: well, any special color, this robin's egg blue is just lovely. And look at this pink chartreuse. It's just adorable.
MAN: Yeah, those are nice, but you know, I'm trying to make sure that I don't go over my budget. My friend's wife just had triplets and we moved into a bigger house and wants me to paint the family room. He's offering me $250 to do it.
LAVERNE: Does that include all the supplies too?
MAN: Yeah, that's everything so I'm trying to figure out how much I'm going to clear.
LAVERNE: So you're trying to figure out the cost of the job to figure out how much money you're going to make.
MAN: Exactly, but I think I'm stuck.
LAVERNE: Well, let's unstuck you. Here you take my clipboard and write down the parts of the job that you know about
MAN: okay, well, I know that he's offering me $250 to do it.
LAVERNE: uh huh, good. That's your budget. And what else? Like do you know how much paint you're going to need for the job?
MAN: well, let's see. The family room is 300 sq. feet and he wants me to paint the ceiling too. I want to do 2 coats.
LAVERNE: Okay, so 2 coats and you'll need 2 gallons. It's $17.89 a gallon, so why don't we just round it up to $18 because it'll just make it easier to add up. That's 4 gallons times $18 each.
MAN: That's $72. That's $72 for paint. And I want to buy brushes, rollers and plastic covering for the carpet.
LAVERNE: Okay, so that'll be about $20 for all the supplies. And don't forget those hats, you'll need hats to cover up that beautiful hair. You know that reminds me. My cousin painted his kitchen yellow and he had flecks in his hair for 2 weeks and it looked just awful. Well, it does help to add it all up doesn't it? To write it all down and see it on paper?
MAN: Right, absolutely. So that's $72 and $20 for the brushes and stuff. That's $92. Oh and I can't forget the tax right?
LAVERNE: No, sir.
MAN: So that's 92 at 8% is 7.36. Round it up, that's $8. So that's $92 for the paint plus $8 tax comes out to $100.
LAVERNE: Good, so now you know that you're going to spend $100 of supplies for the job.
MAN: And he's offered to pay me $250.
LAVERNE: Oh, good!
MAN: So, the supplies cost me $100 and he's offered to pay me $250. That means that after I buy supplies, I've got $150 to take home after the job. All right, that's pretty good. Gracias Laverne.
LAVERNE: Oh wait wait wait a minute. You didn't add on the time it's going to take for you to do the job.
MAN: That's not going to cost me anything.
LAVERNE: You know the old expression, time is money.
MAN: That's right. Well $150 is a lot of money.
LAVERNE: What if the job is going to take you a whole week okay? If you spend a whole week, let's a say 7 full days working everyday on something that you know you're going to get $150 for at the end of the week, that $150 divided by 7 days. That turns out to, let's say, $21 a day.
MAN: $21 bucks a day! That's not even minimum wage.
LAVERNE: Hello! Okay, how long do you think this job is going to take?
MAN: Well, I was thinking over the weekend.
LAVERNE: Well that means you'll be making $150 for working for 2 days.
MAN: $75 a day! That's not bad.
LAVERNE: Yeah! Seems like this job is worth doing.
MAN: Yeah, okay. so what you're saying is when I go to figure out if I should do the job, I add up all the supplies and subtract that number for how I'm getting paid for the whole job.
LAVERNE: That's step one.
MAN: And then I take what's left over after I buy the supplies and I divide that number by the number of hours or days it takes me to do the whole job to figure out my pay. Then I can decide if the amount is worth my while.
LAVERNE: You got it. Now, what color are you getting?
MAN: This one. Barely Beige.
LAVERNE: That's nice. Why don't you come over here, I have something that your friend might like a little better.
MAN: Uh, same price?
LAVERNE: What a businessman. I think it's cheaper. Tell you what, I'll even throw in those little hats I was talking about because your hair is so pretty.
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