Math should be fun, shouldn’t it? It’s much more exciting to practice using various activities and games as opposed to just sitting at a desk doing worksheets. At the end of every year, when reflecting upon some of the favorite things we did, one thing comes up every single year, our QR Code Scavenger Hunts. So, we thought it would be perfect to tie one of these in as we learned about rates and unit rates.

So what exactly are rates and unit rates? Well, a rate is a special type of ratio where instead of comparing items, we’re comparing measurements. An example of a rate would be something like:

Brianna went camping with her family. Each day they went hiking. They hiked 24 miles over the course of 4 days. What is her rate of miles to days?

Rates can be shown in a few different ways. They are most commonly shown written with a colon in between or in a way that looks like a fraction.


A unit rate is when we reduce (simplify) our rate down to express a quantity of one. This is something that you may do on a regular basis without even realizing it. You find unit rates when figuring out miles per hour, miles per gallon, dollars per hour, or price per pound/ounce, etc. You just need to use a little bit of division to figure it out!

We’ve been working with rates since we got back from our winter vacation. So, to see how we were doing and get in a little bit more practice, we had a QR Code scavenger hunt that we called “The Great Rate Race.” Everyone was split up into teams. They were given a question that had three answer choices on the page. Below each was a QR code. Only the correct answer would give a clue to the next question. We had to collaborate and work together to solve the problem, scan the code, and figure out where the next clue was located! It was a ton of fun as we got to search around the school for clues and work on our math at the same time!

We posted some pictures and videos to our Instagram account to share our adventure. You can see some of our pictures below!