standard_description: Use units as a way to understand problems and to guide the solution of multi-step problems; choose and interpret units consistently in formulas; choose and interpret the scale and the origin in graphs and data displays.
problem_activity: Activity
The purpose of this activity is for students to see that to find what percentage one number is of another, divide them and then multiply by 100. First they find what percentage of 20 various numbers are, then they organize everything into a table. Using the table, students then describe the relationship they see between dividing the numbers by 20 and finding the percentage (MP8).
Launch
Depending on students' strengths in grade 5 work, it may be beneficial to offer some strategies for writing a fraction in an equivalent decimal form before students start working. Display the fraction
\(\frac{15}{25}\)
and ask students how they might think about writing it in decimal form. Possible strategies are writing the equivalent fraction
\(\frac{60}{100}\)
and knowing that "60 hundredths" is written 0.60 or 0.6. Another possibility is to write the equivalent fraction
\(\frac35\)
, which is equal to
\(\frac{6}{10}\)
and knowing that "6 tenths" can be written as 0.6.
Give students quiet think time to complete the activity and then time to share their explanations with a partner.
Representation: Internalize Comprehension.
Provide appropriate reading accommodations and supports to ensure students access to written directions, word problems and other text-based content.
Supports accessibility for: Language; Conceptual processing
Speaking: MLR8 Discussion Supports.
To amplify mathematical uses of language to communicate about equivalent fractions and percentages (e.g., 15 minutes is 75% of 20 minutes, 75% of 20 minutes is equivalent to
\(\frac{15}{20}\)
), invite students to use these phrases when stating their ideas, revoicing and rephrasing as necessary.
Design Principle(s): Support sense-making, Optimize output (for explanation)
Student Facing
A school held a jump-roping contest. Diego jumped rope for 20 minutes.
Jada jumped rope for 15 minutes. What percentage of Diego’s time is that?
Lin jumped rope for 24 minutes. What percentage of Diego’s time is that?
Noah jumped rope for 9 minutes. What percentage of Diego’s time is that?
Record your answers in this table. Write the quotients in the last column as decimals.
|       | time (minutes) | percentage | \(\text{time} \div 20\) |
|-------|----------------|------------|-------------------------|
| Diego |                |            |                         |
| Jada  |                |            |                         |
|  Lin  |                |            |                         |
| Noah  |                |            |                         |
What do you notice about the numbers in the last two columns of the table?
Student Response
Teachers with a valid work email address can
click here to register or sign in
for free access to Student Response.
Activity Synthesis
Have students share their strategies for the first three problems. Then ask what they noticed about the last two columns. There are many ways to formulate the relationship. Make sure everyone sees that to find what percentage a number is of 20, divide it by 20 and then multiply by 100. A table showing the percentage for 1 minute might also help:
|           | time (minutes) | percentage |
|-----------|----------------|------------|
|   Diego   |                |            |
| unit rate |                |            |
|   Jada    |                |            |
|    Lin    |                |            |
|   Noah    |                |            |
Note that to find the percentage for 1 minute, we divide 100 by 20, and to find the percentage for any number of minutes, we multiply the result by that number of minutes. That is the same as dividing the number of minutes by 20 and multiplying by 100.


aligns: no