The purpose of this activity is for students to compare decimals using the context of distance. Students should have access to hundredths grids, if they choose to use them. Monitor for students who compare the decimals using

• Place value reasoning to compare the 1 tenth for Diego's throw with the 1 hundredth for Jada's throw.
• Hundredths grids for the decimal part of the throws.
• Number lines, recalling work from a previous course.

When students decide to compare the decimals using number lines or hundredths grids, they are using appropriate tools strategically (MP5).

• Ask previously selected students to share their solutions.
• “Both problems are about comparing decimals. How are the problems different?” (The units are different in the two problems. One is meters and the other is seconds. In one problem, the winner has the greater number and in the other problem, the winner has the lesser number.)

The purpose of this activity is for students to use place value understanding to find decimals that are greater than or less than given numbers. Students work with the disc context from the previous activity. They choose decimals for possible distances that are in between the given distances of disc throws. Then they list several possible distances in increasing order. Students may use many strategies which all rely on place value:

• Using hundredths grids or other diagrams.
• Using expanded form and comparing the value in each place.

Make hundredths grids available for students. 

When students use strategies that are based on place value they are looking for and making use of place value structure (MP7).

• Invite students to share their distances for Mai and Priya.
• “How did you find some possible distances for Mai?” (I could pick any number that was 5 or less so there were lots of choices like 5, 4, 4.7, 4.8)
• “How was finding a distance for Priya different from finding a distance for Mai?” (I had to pick a number that was bigger than 5 but Priya had just 1 hundredth. I could not find a number using just hundredths. I had to use thousandths because they’re smaller than hundredths.)
• “What strategies did you use to put the numbers in your group in order?” (We had some duplicate numbers so we needed to find those. We looked at the whole number and then the tenths, hundredths, and thousandths to find which number was the greatest.)