1. Do you know anyone who has had a multiple birth?
Octuplets John?
How many babies is that?
No idea Dave.
Do you know anyone who has had a multiple birth?

2. Cute!

3. Can you think of some of the pros and cons of living with octuplets ?
How much do you think it would cost if you had eight babies? Would it be eight times as much as having one baby?
Oh cute, but think of all those nappies!
Cute! Cute! Cute! Cute! Cute! Cute! Cute! Cute!
Can you think of some of the pros and cons of living with octuplets ?

4. The previous set of octuplets were born in 1998 in Houston,Texas.
Girl A, weighed 690g (22 oz.) at birth
Girl B, weighed 760g (24.4 oz.) at birth
Girl C, weighed 800g (25.7 oz.) at birth
Girl D, weighed 730g (23.5 oz.) at birth
Girl E, weighed 320g (10.3 oz.) at birth
Boy F, weighed 500g (16.0 oz.) at birth
Boy G, weighed 810g (26.0 oz.) at birth
Girl H, weighed 520g (16.7 oz.) at birth
So the heaviest baby was 810g.
How heavy is that?
What do you mean - How heavy is that?
I mean – what else do I know that is that heavy?

5. The previous set of octuplets were born in 1998 in Houston,Texas.
Girl A, weighed 690g (22 oz.) at birth
Girl B, weighed 760g (24.4 oz.) at birth
Girl C, weighed 800g (25.7 oz.) at birth
Girl D, weighed 730g (23.5 oz.) at birth
Girl E, weighed 320g (10.3 oz.) at birth
Boy F, weighed 500g (16.0 oz.) at birth
Boy G, weighed 810g (26.0 oz.) at birth
Girl H, weighed 520g (16.7 oz.) at birth
I mean – how tall or long?
I wonder how big they were?
What do you mean - how big?

7. Up2d8 maths Octuplets Teacher Notes

8. Octuplets
Introduction: A woman in America has recently given birth to eight babies. This resource will give you the opportunity to explore issues related to
the costs of living with multiple births and interpret information about sizes and weights in the context of the previous octuplet birth in America.
NB: It will be important to be aware of the emotional issues surrounding this topic and not to treat it solely as a numerical exercise.
Content objectives: - use proportional reasoning to solve problems
- use units of measurement to measure, estimate, calculate and solve problems in a range of contexts
- interpret tables, graphs and diagrams for discrete and continuous data, relating summary statistics and findings to the questions
being explored.
Process objectives: These will depend on the amount of freedom you allow your class with the activity. It might be worth considering how you’re going
to deliver the activity and highlighting the processes that this will allow on the diagram below.

9. Activity: First, students are given the opportunity to consider the pros and cons of living with eight babies at the same time
and, from this, to think about some possible benefits and issues, possible solutions and costs. Secondly, students are invited to
consider the sizes of the babies at birth. Can they imagine or demonstrate how heavy the babies were? Can they find out how
tall (or long) the babies were?.
Differentiation: You may decide to change the level of challenge for your group.
To make the task easier you could consider:
asking students to investigate only one of the tasks
asking students to investigate only one of the issues they have identified
using the website to make some weight comparisons
providing a writing frame to assist in writing up the enquiry.
To make the task more complex you could consider:
removing the weights in kg or ounces and ask pupils to calculate some conversion facts
using the weight statistics to calculate some measures of average and spread to compare with a known pair of twins, triplets etc.
asking the students to design their own task related to the context.
This resource is designed to be adapted to your requirements.
Outcomes: You may want to consider what the outcome of the task will be and share this with students according to their
ability. This could be:
designing a gift list for a ‘baby shower’ with or without costs
designing a monthly budget sheet for the family expenses
a poster highlighting the changes the family has made in their lifestyle
writing an entry for a ‘baby book’ for one of the octuplets
a poster putting the weights/heights of the octuplets into context.
Working in groups: This activity lends itself to paired or small group work and, by encouraging students to work
collaboratively, it is likely that you will allow them access to more of the key processes than if they were to work individually.
You will need to think about how your class will work on this task. Will they work in pairs, threes or larger groups? If pupils are
not used to working in groups in mathematics, you may wish to spend some time talking about their rules and procedures to
maximise the effectiveness and engagement of pupils in group work (You may wish to look at the SNS Pedagogy and practice
pack Unit 10: Guidance for Groupwork). You may wish to encourage the groups to delegate different areas of responsibility to
specific group members - some of the group could look at the first task only for example.

10. Assessment: You may wish to consider how you will assess the task and how you will record your assessment. This could include developing the
assessment criteria with your class. You might choose to focus on the content objectives or on the process objectives. You might decide that this activity
lends itself to comment only marking or to student self-assessment. If you decide that the outcome is to be a presentation or a poster then you may find
that this lends itself to peer assessment.
Probing questions: Initially students could brainstorm issues to consider. You may wish to introduce some points into the discussion which might
include:
Task 1
Think about some of the joys of having eight babies.
What would be good for the parents?
What would be difficult for the parents?
What would be difficult for the children?
What would you do if all the babies were crying at once?
Could you care for all eight on your own?
How would you go out?
How often would you have to do the washing?
How many nappies would you need per day? Per week? Per month?
Task 2
Has a student in the class had a new birth in the family?
Do they know the weight of that baby? Can they identify something that has a similar weight?
Why might these babies be smaller?
What else do you have that weighs about 810g?
Would a baby weighing 810g be bigger or smaller in size than that?
You will need:
The PowerPoint display which you might read through with your class to set the scene at the beginning of the activity. There are six slides:
The first slide features a BBC news story talking about the birth of the babies. You could use this opportunity to make the link between octuplet, octopus, octagon etc. and make similar links with the words triplet, quadruplet, quintuplet etc.
The second and third slides features two friends talking about the practicalities of living with octuplets and invites students to consider, How much do you think it would cost if you had eight babies? Would it be eight times as much as having one baby?

11. The Student Resource Sheets are as follows:
Data sheet giving the weights of the octuplets
Problem-solving frame to structure pupil thinking when identifying and solving problems
The fourth and fifth slides introduce students to the previous set of octuplets born in Houston in Two friends struggle to understand the weights of the babies at birth and to relate this to a familiar context.
The final slide is an example of the student resource sheets which you may wish to project as a talking point.
a set of 4 percentile graphs which show the weight and height of both boys and girls relative to their ages. Using these graphs it is possible to determine in which percentile the particular baby sits and could be used to make a comparison between height and weight.

12. Up2d8 maths Octuplets Student resource sheets

13. The previous set of octuplets was born in
1998 in Houston, Texas.
Girl A, weighed 690g (22 oz.) at birth
Girl B, weighed 760g (24.4 oz.) at birth
Girl C, weighed 800g (25.7 oz.) at birth
Girl D, weighed 730g (23.5 oz.) at birth
Girl E, weighed 320g (10.3 oz.) at birth
Boy F, weighed 500g (16.0 oz.) at birth
Boy G, weighed 810g (26.0 oz.) at birth
Girl H, weighed 520g (16.7 oz.) at birth

18. How much would it cost?
How could you tackle the problem?
What practical problems might you have when living with eight babies?