6th Grade Computation Resources
This resource is intended to get students to use proportional reasoning to estimate quotients. Use the sliders to generate random dividends and divisors, or input your own numbers. Start by dragging the numbers to the correct locations, then predict the number of "jumps" to land on the dividend.
An Egyptian fraction is the expansion of a non-unit fraction into a sum on unique unit fractions. For instance, 2/3 = 1/2 + 1/6 is an Egyptian fraction expansion, while 2/3 = 1/3 + 1/3 (not unique) and 2/3 = 1/3 + 2/9 + 1/10 + 1/90 (not all unit fractions) are not. Use this resource to explore these ideas, while getting some visual supports and an answer if needed. The provided answer is generated with what is called the Greedy Algorithm, which is not always the "best" expansion. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_fraction for further explanation.
Use the sliders to adjust the addends, then consider the size of the sum relative to the two bounds you are given. "Would the sum be closer to ___ or ___? How do you know?" As the level of precision increases, the level of mathematical reasoning increases with it. And the GRAND purpose behind this is to get students using an estimation strategy called front-end addition. Consider building this around a central question of "How do we make our estimates more precise?"
This activity is meant to develop flexible, creative thinking about numbers and operations. Your goal is to move a from a starting number to a target number, but there are many ways to do this! Adjust the sliders to control the bounds of the numbers involved.
Estimate the quotients and put them in order. Adjust the slider to change the number of questions and the size of the dividend and divisor. This will have non-integer quotients more often than no, so the emphasis will be on using number sense to get an idea of their relative size, not on exact answers.
