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The purpose of this Estimation Exploration is for students to develop strategies for finding the product of a fraction and a mixed number. Since is so close to 3, a good estimate is or 84. Students may refine this estimate using the distributive property
Since is about 3, or 81 is a good estimate. Students will use these ideas in the lesson when they find products of fractions, whole numbers, and mixed numbers.
Record an estimate that is:
| too low | about right | too high |
|---|---|---|
For each expression, find the greatest product or quotient you can make with the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. You can only write each number once in each expression. You do not need to use all the numbers. Explain or show your reasoning.
For each expression, find the smallest product or quotient you can make with the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. You can only write each number once in each expression. You do not need to use all the numbers. Explain or show your reasoning.
“Today we looked at the value of different multiplication and division expressions involving unit fractions.”
Display the first expressions from the two activities.
“What numbers will make the value of this expression as large as possible?” (I use the 5 and 6 for the numerators and the 1 and 2 for the denominators.)
“What numbers will make it as small as possible?” (I use the 1 and 2 for the numerators and the 5 and 6 for denominators.)
“How are the expressions we wrote for the largest and smallest values the same? How are they different?” (They use the same numbers but they are in the numerator in one expression and in the denominator in the other.)
We used the relationship between multiplication and division to write both multiplication and division equations to represent the same situation.
Example:
There are 2 pounds of beef in the package. Each burger uses pound. How many burgers does the package make? We can write and to represent the situation.
We also learned to write multiplication and division equations to represent the same diagram.
Example:
We can write . The diagram shows 6 groups of and the total value is 2. We can also write . The diagram shows that the number of groups of in 2 is 6.