Story:
While you were watching the Olympics every morning and night, you had a secret buddy watching alongside you. No, not your mum. Nope - not dad. No way, not little sis, she was watching Bluey! Guess who? The ants of your home. And they got so inspired, they decided to compete in a new event - the Ant Olympics! The first event is the sprint! No, not the 100m sprint. Ants can't sprint for that long...
Tools:
Cuisenaire rods or twigs collected from the playground.
Grid pages (1cmx1cm)
Main event
The queen ant sprints and sets the distance that all other ants have to meet to qualify. This shall be known as 'the whole,' as in the whole event or whole distance of the race.
However, not every competing ant can sprint for that long! The ants have an endurance problem you see.
Mark what fraction of the sprint that each ant completed, by placing the twigs/sticks on your page, as in the student work sample photo above.
Pro tip: Create the 'one whole' or benchmark sprint first, then all other sprints are compared relative to that.
Support: Choose a starting rod/twig that is 10 grids long. All other twigs can be 'out of 10/tenths.'
Extension 1: Also mark percentages and decimals, imagining that the main sprint was out of 100, so if a shorter sprint was 1/4 of the distance, it is 100 shared between 4 parts, so 25 out of 100 parts of the main sprint = 25% = 0.25 of the benchmark sprint.
Extension 2: Include some sprints that go beyond the queen's benchmark. These are then mixed numerals/mixed number sprints and can also be recorded as improper fractions.
Comments