Writing About the United States National Debt in a High School Math Course

As a high school math teacher I often incorporate new math project ideas that are applicable to today's students. The project described in this article utilizes writing across the curriculum. It also draws connections between economics or social studies content with mathematics. The depth of knowledge is more application based and includes higher reasoning thought processes with simple conversions and data analysis. This article shares details of this writing project for other high school math teachers to use or modify for their own classes.

Educational Reasons for the National Debt Math Project
I noticed that many students had difficulty conceptualizing really large numbers, particularly those in the trillions. In addition, many states, including Michigan, have adopted new state standards which include a large amount of writing in math classes. This project addresses both areas.

Writing Across the Curriculum National Debt Math Project Details
As of January 31, 2011, the U.S. national debt was listed at $14,074,376,364,097. (Source: U.S. National Debt Clock) This enormous number changed daily, but was as real world as a teacher could find. Students immediately took the project seriously because the number was not based on a ten year old textbook or some made up number.

The project itself was split into two parts. Part one fostered a mathematical discussion about the national debt and helped students gain an appreciation for the enormity of the country's debt. Students were given the day's national debt and the following prompt:

Imagine that all new debt accrual stopped immediately. If paying back one dollar per second, how much time would it take for the United States to wipe out its national debt? Be specific, listing your answer in years, days, hours, minutes, and seconds.

To assist students in the conversion process, I provided students with how many years one trillion seconds comprised. The description of the solution is on Answers.com, but for quick reference is included here:
31,688 years, 269 days, 8 hours, 48 minutes, and 33 seconds (including leap years) is the equivalent of one trillion seconds.

The second part of the project was an opinion paper, supported with mathematical data. I provided students with a four page portion of an on-line opinion paper titled "United States National Debt - An Analysis of the Presidents Who Are Responsible for the Borrowing" by Steve McGourty. Students read the article and had to write a two to three page opinion paper either accepting his points or refuting them. They had to include detailed math examples to support their opinion and write a strong conclusion.

Results of the Math Project
At first students struggled with the details of the project. They had not experienced many writing assignments supported by mathematical facts, nor had they read many data based articles. Students found that before this project they primarily wrote fiction or opinion papers without detailed data to support their reasons. After completing this math writing project, students gained a better appreciation for college style writing. They also learned about the enormity of the U.S. national debt and how difficult (if not impossible) it will be to erase it.

What do you think of this math writing project? Were you aware of how big the national debt has grown? Please leave a comment below.