Hands-on Division with Fractions

Hands-on Division with Fractions for Student Understanding

The Hands-on Division with Fractions for Student Understanding curriculum is designed to enhance students’ conceptual understanding of division with fractions through real-world contexts and hands-on and visual models.

Downloads

The Hands-on Division with Fractions for Student Understanding curriculum can be downloaded here. The documents are Google Docs. Permission is granted to make-a-copy, edit as you wish, and use them for educational purposes. Materials are copyrighted by Jim Olsen.

Documents

    1. The Division Progression and Teacher Notes – Includes ➢Overview and Goals; ➢The Division Progression; ➢Teacher notes for The Division Progression; ➢Connecting Fraction Tiles Notes; ➢Polypad Notes – Fractions.
    2. Comments on the Two Meanings of Division – The meanings are Group size unknown and Number of groups unknown.
    3. Key Take-Aways for Each Objective in the Division Progression –  Answers the question, What do students learn from the problems in 8 objectives of the progression?
    4. Curriculum handouts – The are 8 handouts. One for each objective in The Division Progression. Each handout includes:

▶Two example problems (one for each of the two meanings of division)
▶Three “Homework” problems.
▶One “Assessment” problem.

      1. Sports Teams and Pies (1)
      2. Cooking & Crafting (2)
      3. Mopping the Gym Floor and Knitting (3)
      4. Croissants & Eggs(4)
      5. Cinnamon Rolls and Cells Samples (5)
      6. Let’s Get Planting Worksheet (6)
      7. Elephants Go Bananas for Bananas! Worksheet (7)
      8. Cookin’ With Gas Worksheet (8)

Master File of ALL EIGHT Handouts (26 pages)

Presentations

ICTM Annual Conference, Naperville, IL, October 7, 2023, at 3 pm. Google Slides here.

Ongoing Process

I (Jim Olsen) am continuing to work on this curriculum and plan to make videos. I welcome input from others regarding comments, corrections, and recommendations for video topics. My current YouTube channel is here.

History

The Hands-on Division with Fractions for Student Understanding project was begun in the spring of 2023 as an undergraduate research project, at Western Illinois University. Teacher education majors, Cailey Platt and Hailee Zachman, worked with Dr. Jim Olsen to develop the Division Progression and the first draft of the 8 handouts. The project was presented at the Undergraduate Research Day, on April 19, 2023. Dr. Olsen is continuing to develop the curriculum and make videos.

Page created by Dr. Jim Olsen ~ JR-Olsen@wiu.edu.

Dr. Olsen has other webpages, including his WIU Homepage and DrJimO.net.