options: Number & Operations in Base Ten: students learn to work with the base-ten system and build place value understanding.

Geometry: students learn to classify geometric figures by their properties, and understand and compare the relationships between them. Students develop and use formulas to compute lengths, areas, and volumes, and they use transformations to generate new shapes and compare existing ones. Geometry can be studied with and without coordinates.

Ratios & Proportional Relationships: students learn to recognize, describe, represent, and reason with ratios, rates, proportional relationships, and percent.

Functions: students learn to define, use, and evaluate functions to model relationships between quantities.

Number & Operations - Fractions: students learn to understand fractions as numbers and may work with them using addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.

Counting & Cardinality: students learn to know number names and the count sequence, count to tell the number of objects, and compare numbers.

Measurement & Data: students learn to work with data and measure attributes such as time, money, length, area, and volume. They may learn to compare measurements to operations and convert between different units of measure.

Statistics & Probability: students learn to analyze and produce data distributions, and build understanding of univariate and bivariate data. They learn to interpret data, make statistical inferences, justify conclusions, understand rules of probability, and use probability to make decisions.

Number Systems and Quantity: students learn to understand the complex number system and reason quantitatively.

Modeling: students learn to choose and use appropriate mathematics and statistics to analyze real-world empirical situations, improve decisions, and report on their conclusions and the reasoning behind them.

Operations & Algebra: students learn to solve problems using algebraic thinking and operations such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. They may learn to identify and explain arithmetic patterns, evaluate or manipulate numerical expressions, and reason with equations and inequalities.
problem_activity: Narrative
In this activity, students notice as the divisor increases for a given dividend, the quotient gets smaller. Students may recognize and explain the relationship between multiplication and division. For example, they may notice that dividing one quarter into two equal pieces is the same as finding the product of
\(\frac{1}{2}\times\frac{1}{4}\)
. This relationship is not explicitly brought up in the synthesis, but if students describe this relationship, connect it to the student work that is discussed in the synthesis, as appropriate. When students notice a pattern, they look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning (MP8).
Engagement: Provide Access by Recruiting Interest.
Invite students to share a situation in their own lives that could be used to represent one of the division expressions.
Supports accessibility for: Conceptual Processing, Language, Attention
Launch
Groups of 2
Activity
1–2 minutes: independent think time
3–5 minutes: partner work time
Student Facing
Find the value that makes each equation true. Use a diagram if it is helpful.
\(\frac {1}{4} \div 2 = \underline{\hspace{1 cm}}\)
\(\frac {1}{4} \div 3 = \underline{\hspace{1 cm}}\)
\(\frac {1}{4} \div 4 = \underline{\hspace{1 cm}}\)
What patterns do you notice?
How would you find the value of
\(\frac{1}{4}\)
divided by any whole number? Explain or show your reasoning.
Student Response
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Advancing Student Thinking
If students do not explain how they would find the value of
\(\frac{1}{4}\)
divided by any whole number, prompt them to find the value of
\(\frac{1}{4} \div 5\)
and
\(\frac{1}{4} \div 6\)
and ask, “What is the relationship between the divisor and the quotient?”
Activity Synthesis
Display:
\(\frac {1}{4} \div 2 = \frac {1}{8}\)
\(\frac {1}{4} \div 3 = \frac {1}{12}\)
\(\frac {1}{4} \div 4 = \frac {1}{16}\)
“What patterns do you notice?” (The quotient is getting smaller. The denominator of the quotient is getting bigger. The denominator in the quotient increases by 4. The denominator in the quotient is equal to 4 times the number you are dividing by.)
“Why is the quotient getting smaller?” (Because we are dividing
\(\frac {1}{4}\)
into more pieces each time, so the size of each piece will be smaller.)


correct_option_index: 4