[IAEP] Looking for Concrete "Fraction Experiences"

[David Corking]

On Wed, Jul 13, 2011 at 4:23 AM, Steve Thomas said:
> Special bonus points for anyone who can come up with an example of division
> with fractions (ex: 1/3 divided by 1/2)

I found a couple of promising lesson plans with a web search:

http://mypages.iit.edu/~smile/ma9703.html
http://mypages.iit.edu/~smile/ma8805.html

If your students are familiar with cuisenaire rods, a little coaching
should help them to develop demonstrations or calculation methods with
the rods.

Also, how about pouring a liter a water into cups marked with a fill
line at two-tenths of a liter. (two-tenths is one fifth, the student
fills five cups, so the reciprocal of one fifth is five.) And so on
with two liters, then half a liter ...

Above present division as "quotition" (how many times x goes into z)

"Partition" (sharing z equally among y groups) is still up for Steve's
bonus points. I don't think elementary/middle school students should
be expected to think of sharing a third of a pizza among half a
person, but there are probably many natural examples that don't occur
to me at the moment. An unnatural one and perhaps intimidating one, is
figuring out how to pay a dividend to a holder of a fractional share
of stock!

David