Difference between revisions of "Activities/Turtle Art/Tutorials/Fractions"

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== Turtle Art/Tutorials/Fractions ==
  
This is the outline that will be fleshed out in Turtle Art.
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Read at https://help.sugarlabs.org/turtleart_tutorials/fractions.html
  
* Cut a pie in pieces, and color some of the pieces, as Tony did. That
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The source file has been moved to [https://github.com/godiard/help-activity/blob/master/source/turtleart_tutorials/fractions.rst GitHub]
gives the basic idea of a fraction. Point out that when you cut a pie in,
 
say, 8 pieces, you are doing 1 divided by 1/8.
 
 
 
* Cut more than one pie in the same number of pieces each. This lets us
 
talk about "improper" fractions and mixed fractions (integer plus
 
fraction), and converting between them. We can also introduce rational
 
numbers at some stage of child development.
 
 
 
* Cut a pie in pieces, and cut the pieces into smaller pieces
 
(multiplication of the simplest fractions, such as 1/2 times 1/3). Some
 
fractions can be described using the bigger pieces, and some require the
 
smaller pieces. Talk about reducing fractions to lowest terms. (You will
 
need other materials in order to talk about Greatest Common Divisors. I'll
 
do something on that.) Take some time on multiplying fractions. Then
 
notice that, for example, if you divide a pie into sixths, three of the
 
pieces make a half. 3 times 1/6 is 1/2, so 1/2 divided by 3 is 1/6, and
 
1/2 (= 3/6) divided by 1/6 is 3. (Assuming prior understanding that if the
 
product of, say, 2 and 3 is 6, then 6/3 = 2 and 6/2 = 3.)
 
 
 
* Cut several pies. For example, cut two pies into three pieces each, and
 
then color pairs of pieces. How many groups of two pieces make two pies?
 
Congratulations, you have just divided 2 by 2/3.
 
 
 
* Work other examples, dividing whole numbers by fractions, then fractions
 
by other fractions, choosing cases that come out even to start with.
 
 
 
* Now look at examples where one fraction does not go evenly into the
 
other. What do you have to do to make sense of the remainder? Say you have
 
a pizza cut into 8 pieces, and you have hungry pizza eaters who want three
 
slices each. How many can you accommodate? Well, two, with two slices left
 
over. Two slices is 2/3 of three slices, so that comes to 2 2/3 portions.
 
 
 
None of this requires Turtle Art. You can cut pies or cakes, or pieces of
 
construction paper to do all of this. Oh, yes. How many pieces do the
 
local pizza parlors cut pizzas into? What fractions can you make from
 
those pieces? Can you find pictures of pizzas from directly above, so that
 
they appear as circles? (Yes.) What else? Craters on the moon? The whole
 
moon? Circular swimming pools, fountains, ponds?
 
 
 
It remains an open question whether the children will discover the
 
invert-and-multiply rule for dividing fractions by themselves, whether
 
they will need broad hints, or whether they will have to be told. It would
 
be interesting to me to hear how they would explain these ideas to each
 
other. I will be interested to hear your results.
 

Latest revision as of 09:31, 28 July 2018

Turtle Art/Tutorials/Fractions

Read at https://help.sugarlabs.org/turtleart_tutorials/fractions.html

The source file has been moved to GitHub