the large bus has 54 students and holds 2/3rds of all the participants then you can use the equation 54=x(2/3) so x=54(3/2)=81. So you have 81 participants but 7 of them are chaperones so subtract 7 from 81 to find how many students you have.
54=(2/3)x
x=54(3/2)=81
81-7=74
so you have 74 students