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Getting Home

Assessment Task

This assessment task covers numeracy – problem solving

Ben hasn’t arranged any transport home from the party. He’s trying to work out who might be able to give him a lift home. In most parts of Australia he can’t get a lift home with a P plate driver who’s drunk any alcohol. However, there are a few fully licensed drivers at the party who might have a few alcoholic drinks and be driving home in his direction.

Here are three people Ben is considering getting a lift home with.

/ Billy
Drinking full strength stubbies of beer
2 every hour for 5 hours
/ Jess
Drinking glasses of vodka and orange and rum and coke
2 nips (shots) vodkas in the first hour
2 nips (shots) bourbon and cokes in the next 3 hours
/ Tim
Drinking light beer stubbies. 2 per hour for 2 hours.

Remember: To stay below 0.05, typical males can drink two standard drinks in the first hour, and one standard drink per hour after that. Typical females can drink one standard drink per hour. Both males and females lose the equivalent of one standard drink per hour of non-drinking time.

Do your work - both rough and exact calculations - on this sheet. You need to show all your working out for each task.

Task A

Your first task is to work out if any of these drivers are safe for Ben to get a lift with. To know what amount keeps a driver under the legal limit, one of the things you’ll need to know is the quantity of alcohol in different drinks.

Task B

Now work out what is a safe level of consumption for each driver if Ben is to safely accept a lift home with him or her. Each driver should stick with the same type of alcohol, but you will work out how many drinks they will have per hour.

Task C

For every drink you consume, it takes 1 hour of non-drinking to remove it from your bloodstream (i.e. to reduce your blood alcohol content). With this information and the information in task A, work out how many hours Billy, Jess and Tim will need to stop drinking for, before they can safely drive home.

When you have completed your task, submit it to your teacher for assessment.

When you have submitted your completed work, you may like to go back to the ‘Getting Home’ CD and have a go at the online BAC Calculator.

Not sure how to problem solve? Click here

www.dest.gov.au/ty/litnet/numeracy/home/nh_0005.htm