Commentary: Real Life Fraction Problems

 

            Clearly many of people manage everyday life just fine without understanding fractions; if all students used them more often, they’d have a better sense of them.  However, ridiculous fake real life fraction problems abound in texts; I am not opposed to fake or fantastical problems by any means, I just don’t call it “real life” when Tommy can paint a wall in 1  hours, etc.  This handout was an attempt to make up problems that were about situations I’d actually thought about; some of the situations invite estimation and multiple approaches.  Another goal of the handout is to help students better develop a sense of the meaning of multiplication and division of fractions in various contexts.  7/05

 

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