Lesson: Maya's Sustainable Fashion

With scrap paper or a piece of construction paper, have students cut out a strip that is 4 ²/₃ inches long. Then have them make markings every ²/₃ inch. Ask students to describe what these markings represent. Tell students that their paper strip can be described by division equations and that in this lesson they will learn how to compute fraction division.

Play the video. Then discuss the following questions:

• What does Maya do?

• How did Maya begin her entrepreneurial journey?

• How is Maya’s business helpful to the world?

• What is Maya’s advice to young entrepreneurs?

Distribute or digitally share the “Central Idea” literacy skill sheet. Have a volunteer read the introduction aloud to the class. Then have students read the article in pairs. After each section, have them think-pair-share to brainstorm central ideas for that section with their partner. Make a class list of all the central ideas. Then have students cast a secret vote on which central idea they think best represents the entire article. Have students copy the selected central idea onto their skill sheets. Then discuss question 2 as a class.

Play the instructional video. At certain points, pause the video to discuss the following questions:

• At 0:34, ask: Why is 50 the dividend and 16 ²/₃ the divisor? (50 is the total length of the road race, so it is the dividend. 16 ²/₃ is a partial length of the route—the distance between water stops—so it is the divisor.)

• At 1:05, ask: How do you convert a mixed number to an improper fraction? (Multiply the whole number by the denominator, and then add the numerator to that. This is the numerator in the improper fraction. The denominator is the same as the original denominator.)

• At 1:14, ask: How do you convert a whole number to an improper fraction? (The whole number becomes the numerator, and the denominator is 1.)

• At 1:28, ask: How do you find the reciprocal of a fraction? (switch the numerator and the denominator of the fraction) How do you divide two fractions? (multiply the first fraction by the reciprocal of the second fraction)

• At 1:57, ask: How does the video simplify the fraction ¹⁵⁰/₅₀? (First, divide both the numerator and the denominator by 10. Then, since the fraction bar represents division, divide the numerator by the denominator.)

Have students write an equation to represent the paper sheet they made during the “Engage” section (4 ²/₃ ÷ ²/₃  = 7) to review what they learned in the video. To reinforce the steps of dividing fractions, have them write K (for keep) above the first fraction, C (for change from division to multiplication) above the multiplication sign, and F (for flip into the reciprocal) above the second fraction. Then have students complete the “Your Turn” section individually. Review the answers as a class by choosing volunteers to walk through each problem and describe or model how they solved it.

Have students rewatch the math video “Dividing Fractions” and then visit the website scratch.mit.edu/projects/133412592, which generates random fractions. Have students generate two fractions and then divide them. Repeat this process for 10 different sets of fractions.