Equivalent Fraction Explorer

http://thewessens.net/ClassroomApps/Main/equivalentfractions.html?topic=number&id=21

Interactive, Publisher, The Mathenæum

This app provides an interactive visualisation of equivalent fractions by arranging a grid into various groupings, and, when valid, presenting the corresponding fraction and it's reduced form.

24 April 2019 Edit: 25 April 2019

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Ken Wessen on  17 May 19  at  07:16 AM #CONTRIBUTOR

Thanks for the feedback.

This reflects an inherent ambiguity in division.  Is it sharing in equal parts (pieces of pie)?  Is it making equal groups (players per team)?  This activity focusses on the “grouping” aspect, showing the equivalence between 15 players in 3 teams of 5 and 18 players in 3 teams of 6 say. The “whole” is indeed of different size. If the blocks were rescaled to keep the “whole” size the same, they would no longer be square and the rearrangement aspect would no longer work.

There is an alternative activity listed under the RELATED heading that uses a Singapore bar model to emphasise the sharing aspect of fractions - the bar is constant size and the parts are reduced.

heather@workingmaths.net on  16 May 19  at  11:36 AM #

The equivalent fractions represented in this model have different-sized “wholes”. This could mislead students who do not realise that the larger the denominator, the smaller the parts.