Translating between fractions, decimals, and percents

This lesson develops the concept of converting between and ordering fractions, decimals, and percentages. The lesson uses area and linear models of fractions, decimals, and percentages to understand equivalence.

The main activity is a collaborative exercise. Students must collect together cards that show a number as:

• A percentage and decimal
• A fraction
• A pictorial representation of the fraction
• A number on a scale (with divisions shown but not labelled)

Some of the sets involve students creating their own cards.

There are pre-lesson and post-lesson formative assessment tasks. Detailed teacher notes give suggestions on questioning and how to use the resources. Full solutions are given for each of the sections.

This is a concept development lesson from the Mathematics Assessment Resource Service, a collaboration between UC Berkeley and the Shell Centre team at the University of Nottingham. Further information on the collection is given here.