Fraction Challenges for Elementary and Middle School Classrooms

Presented by Zachary Wissner-Gross, PhD, Product Lead, Amplify Education
Sponsored by Amplify Fractions

Watch the Recording

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Following an earlier “Fraction Challenges” edWebinar for advanced middle school and high school students, this session presents similar challenges, but for earlier grade levels. Gone are the fractional powers, infinite series, irrational approximations, and fractal dimensions. In this sequel edWebinar, Dr. Zachary Wissner-Gross focuses on challenges around equivalence, comparison, and basic operations of fractions—suitable for middle school students and advanced elementary school students.

Challenges covered in this session include:

• Given any two fractions, can you find a fraction whose value is in between?
• Can you find a fraction in between with the smallest denominator?
• When you add or subtract values to the numerator and denominator, what happens to the value of the fraction, and why?
• When you multiply a fraction by itself, when do you get a larger result? And when do you get a smaller result?
• What are some different ways to visualize dividing by fractions, and why does the well-known algorithm actually work?

In the previous edWebinar, you were guaranteed to see fractions in at least one new and exciting way. This time around, learn a series of challenges for your students so that they, too, will see fractions in new and exciting ways.

This recorded session will benefit elementary and middle school math teachers, especially those working in grades three through seven, as well as math leaders, coaches, and administrators.

About the Presenter

Zachary Wissner-Gross, PhD has worked at Amplify Education since 2015, where he has led development of Amplify Fractions, an adaptive, story-driven approach to mathematical instruction. Zachary previously co-founded School Yourself, an online learning platform used by hundreds of thousands of students around the world. He has launched the first two adaptive massive open online courses (AlgebraX and GeometryX) and authored three interactive textbooks in high school and college mathematics. Zachary completed his undergraduate education in physics and biology at MIT, and went on to earn his doctorate in physics from Harvard University, where he was a Hertz Fellow and received the White Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Join the Adaptive Math Learning community to network with educators, participate in online discussions, receive invitations to upcoming edWebinars, view past edWebinars, take a quiz to receive a CE certificate for a past edWebinar, and access free resources.

Amplify Fractions is a digital learning program, laser-focused on fractions. It’s where adaptive learning meets great storytelling, giving students personalized instruction, feedback and practice—all in an animated story-driven environment. Students don’t just learn fractions, they learn to make sense of fractions.