This lesson is Day 12 in a series of 12 lessons around fraction equivalences and comparisons.

Use your math skills to help detectives solve the crime. This video lesson reviews fractions of an area, fractions on a number line, and equivalent fractions. No materials are required.

Ratios

Type of Unit: Concept

Prior Knowledge

Students should be able to:

Calculate with whole numbers up to 100 using all four operations.
Understand fraction notation and percents and translate among fractions, decimal numbers, and percents.
Interpret and use a number line.
Use tables to solve problems.
Use tape diagrams to solve problems.
Sketch and interpret graphs.
Write and interpret equations.

Lesson Flow

The first part of the unit begins with an exploration activity that focuses on a ratio as a way to compare the amount of egg and the amount of flour in a mixture. The context motivates a specific understanding of the use of, and need for, ratios as a way of making comparisons between quantities. Following this lesson, the usefulness of ratios in comparing quantities is developed in more detail, including a contrast to using subtraction to find differences. Students learn to interpret and express ratios as fractions, as decimal numbers, in a:b form, in words, and as data; they also learn to identify equivalent ratios.

The focus of the middle part of the unit is on the tools used to represent ratio relationships and on simplifying and comparing ratios. Students learn to use tape diagrams first, then double number lines, and finally ratio tables and graphs. As these tools are introduced, students use them in problem-solving contexts to solve ratio problems, including an investigation of glide ratios. Students are asked to make connections and distinctions among these forms of representation throughout these lessons. Students also choose a ratio project in this part of the unit (Lesson 8).

The third and last part of the unit covers understanding percents, including those greater than 100%.

Students have ample opportunities to check, deepen, and apply their understanding of ratios, including percents, with the selection of problems in the Gallery.

Students work with a set of cards showing different ways of expressing ratios numerically. They group the cards showing equivalent ratios and then order the groups from least to greatest value.Key ConceptsIt can be hard to compare the values of ratios represented in different forms (e.g., a:b, decimal, fraction, a to b). Simplifying ratios makes it easier to compare and order their values.Goals and Learning ObjectivesIdentify ratios that are equivalent but expressed differently.Simplify ratios in order to group and order cards efficiently and successfully.

The interactive pan balance uses multiple shapes with different values, allowing students to investigate what happens as different shapes are placed on the balance. This student interactive, from Illuminations, provides an interesting environment in which students can consider the concept of equivalence.