Friday, May 7, 2010

What are the number in the following pattern

I gave this type of problem to the kids before.
The sequence I chose was 720, 360, 180, 90

It was a challenge for kids to determine the pattern. When I wrote those numbers on the board I made a mistake. Instead of 180, I wrote 120. So it didn't help them to find the pattern. But I could see how hard the kids were thinking :) When I gave a hint that each following number is a half from previous number. The kids were paid attention to minor details of may explanation. So when I said that 120 is a half from 360. They noticed this right away and corrected me on the spot.
I started asking what is a half of 90:45.
A half from 45: 22 1/2
A half from 22 1/2: 11/1/4
But then it was very difficult for them to get a half from 11 1/4. So I draw 11 circles and additional circle where I marked 1/4. Together we derived a half from 11: 5 1/2. Then we get a half from 1/4: 1/8. The next step was to add
5 1/2 and 1/8. It was not a trivial exercise for kids, so I posed a question: How many 1/8th in 1/2. They solved: 4/8. Then the kids realized that all they need to do next is to add 5 + 4/8 +1/8 = 5 5/8
As the next step I asked them: What is a half from 5 5/8.
We did a similar exercises as before. We got a half from 5: 2 1/2. Then we needed to make a half from 5/8. Together they got it that 5/8 is the same as 10/16 and a half from this would be 5/16.
So the result was 2 1/2 + 5/16. The next step was to add 1/2 and 5/16. I asked : how many 1/16th is 1/2. They answered 8/16. So the final answer was 2 + 8/16 + 5/16 = 2 13/16

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