Content Area: Math

 

Index: 4.1A Grade 7 CPI 6

 

Standard: 4.1 - Number and Numerical Operations

 

Strand: C - Estimation

 

Cumulative Progress Indicator: 6 -  The student will understand that all fractions can be represented as repeating or terminating decimals.

 

Grade: 7

 

Sample Activities:

 

·        Students use their calculators to find the decimal equivalent for 2/3 by dividing 2 by 3. Some of the students get an answer of 0.66667, while others get 0.6666667. They do the problem by hand to try to understand what is happening. They decide that different calculators round off the answer after different numbers of decimal places. The teacher explains that the decimal for 2/3 can be written exactly as .6.

 

·        Students have been looking for the number of different squares that can be made on a 5 x 5 geoboard and have come up with 1x1, 2x2, 3x3, 4x4, and 5x5 squares. One student finds a different square, however, whose area is 2 square units. The students wonder how long the side of the square is. Since they know that the area is the length of the side times itself, they try out different numbers, multiplying 1.4 x 1.4 on their calculators to get 1.89 and 1.5 x 1.5 to get 2.25. They keep adding decimal places, trying to get the exact answer of 2, but find that they cannot, no matter how many places they try!