Johnny’s Trip to the Bowling Alley

By: Brian C. SchroederRED6545

• Johnny is a 10 year old boy who loves all kinds of sports. The only sport he doesn’t know anything about is bowling. His teacher told him that bowling involves math in order to keep score. Johnny decided that it was time for him to learn how to bowl and he wants to make sure he is a master at keeping score first.

Have you ever been bowling before?How many pins do you have to knock down?Do you know what it is called when you knock them all down?

• The first thing Johnny did was obtain a blank score sheet to see how many frames are in a game of bowling. He realized there are ten frames in one game.

• Next, he figured out there are ten pins to knock down. Johnny thought he had all the information he needed to be ready to bowl, but he was wrong. Knocking down all the pins each time means you have to add differently.

What do you think the word frames means in this story?Johnny thinks he has all the information he needs, but he is missing some important information. Please record in your notebooks what information you think johnny is still missing.

We are going to practice using the score sheet below and learn along with Johnny about the information he

doesn’t know.

I am handing you a score sheet. Please take a look at it and place it in your notebooks.

• Johnny’s teacher sits down with him and shows him how to add the first 3 frames. (Point to the first three frames and copy along with Johnny and his teacher)

• X(X means strike and you knocked all the pins down in one shot) = 10 points

• 9/(/ means spare and you knocked the rest of the pins down on the second shot) = 9 + 1 = 10

• 5/ = 5 + 5 = 10• X 9/ 5/ = 10 (X) + 10 (9/) + 10 (5/) = 30

We already learned an X = 10 pins. What does the symbol / mean using clues from the story?Take a look at the picture. Do you think 30 is the correct answer for frame three? Why or why not?

• X 9/ 5/ = 10 (X) + 10 (9/) + 10 (5/) = 30• Johnny seems confused because the number on frame

three shows a 52 and they only have an answer of 30 so far. Johnny’s teacher explains the way to reach 52.

• The 9/ in frame two adds an extra 10 to frame one. That’s why we have 20 in frame one. The 5/ in frame three adds an extra 5 to frame two. That’s why we have 35 in frame two. Lastly the 7 in frame four adds 7 to frame three. That’s how we get 52 in frame three.

What was the missing information that Johnny discovered with the help from his teacher?

Johnny says, “Wow I didn’t realize how difficult it is to figure out bowling scores.” Johnny figures out that he has the following total for the first three frames.10+10 for frame one.10+5 for frame two.10+7 for frame three. 20 + 15 + 17 = 52.

Have your students check the math in their notebooks.Do you all think that Johnny has all the information he needs nowor is there still something else he needs to know? Take a look at the three strikes in frames five, six, and seven. Check the math and see if all strikes uses the same rules that we learned for strikes and spares.

• Johnny is so excited that he learned everything he needs to know about keeping score in bowling. His teacher says, “Not so fast. You didn’t realize that when you have multiple strikes together you have to add a bit differently as well.” Johnny can not believe that there are more rules to learn about bowling. Johnny thinks how hard bowling is and he hasn’t even learned how to bowl yet.

Did the math rules work with multiple strikes?Can you think of other sports that involve math to figure out scores?How can this be helpful to you even though computers do the work for you when you’re bowling?

Take a look at frames five, six, and seven. The scores goes from 91 to 139. (What is the difference?) Frame four says 61 so 30 pins were added between frame four and five. Where did they come from? 10 + 10 + 10. The two additional +10 came from the two strikes in frame six and seven. When there is more than one strike together they get added to the frames before it. (Up to three frames)

Let’s take a look at the frames and practice what we just learned.

Frame 5 = 10 + 10 from frame six + 10 from frame seven. We are at 91.Frame 6 = 10 + 10 from frame seven + 9 from frame 8. We are now at 120.Frame 7 = 10 + 9 from frame eight. We are now at 139. Bowling has multiple methods to keep score. What is

another sport that has multiple rules to follow?Have you ever done a math problem with multiple steps? How do you solve a problem with multiple steps?

• Johnny finally has all of the information he needs to keep score at bowling. He is very excited and ready to start bowling. Johnny realizes he hasn’t learned how to actually bowl yet. He asks his teacher, “Can you teach me how to bowl?” His teacher responds, “I may be good at adding, but I have no idea how to actually bowl.” They both laugh together.

Using your notebooks please record some steps that Johnny needs to follownow that he knows how to keep score at bowling? What other information does he need?

Review WordsBowlingFrames

PinsStrikeSpare

Please take a look at the review words above. What is the meaning of each word? Please write a sentence using at least two of the words above.