One of the most difficult hoops that
children are asked to jump through in school is
fractions. Just the thought of doing them can make
students break out in a cold sweat. This is perfectly
understandable because (1) fractions are difficult for
4-5th graders, (2) students operate with fractions in a
mindless manner
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The purpose of Fraction Arcade is
to create a context that students can explore and
master fractional concepts.
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and (3)
students do not see any relevance for this
manipulation except to pass a test so they can get
their hand-held game consoles privileges back. The bad
news here is that, for the most part, the kids are
right. The learning of fractions IS hard, IS mindless
and IS meaningless. So why do educators insist on
enforcing such cruel and unusual
punishment? Most
of them associate fractions with mathematics which
everyone
agrees is critical to know if we are to have an
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enlightened
citizenry. The truth is that operating on fractions
is not something that the average citizen needs to know
how to do. (When was the last time you multiplied two
fractions outside of a math classroom context?) So
should we throw out fractions? No for two reasons.
First, fractional understanding is critical to
understanding how mathematics works, and, second
learning about fractions can be an interesting
experience!
But how does one make operating with
fractions meaningful and interesting? I decided to
tackle this challenge. One of the impacts on my thinking
was an article by Tom O’Brien in the Computing Teacher
(March, 1986) Turning Mysteries into Problems where he
wrote that children are fascinated with mysteries that
eventually turn into a problem that they can solve.
Realizing that children rarely need to add fractions
outside of their math class, I thought I would create a
world they did. What follows is an example of this
world. Start off by going to the Cinema to see an
amazing movie.
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