Multiplication and
Division- How are they related?
As I
continue to work with my third graders, I continue to see how they relate
different subjects. As students left Unit 3 and Measurement and entered Unit 4
which focused on Multiplication and Division, I had the chance to see how
students thought about Multiplication
and Division. One of the first activities students did in Unit 4 was completed a
Fact Triangle. A fact triangle consisted of three numbers that could be multiplied and divided be each other and not have a remainder. A Fact Triangle for 5 and 25 would be (starting at the top,
going down to your right, across to your left then back to the top) 5 times 5
is 25; 25 divided by 5 is 5; 5 divided
by 1 is 5. Student would have to know multiplication and division in order to
solve these Fact Triangle. Students had to complete Fact Triangle provided by
their Math Journal, then they had to create a Fact Triangle of their own. This
work sheet showed that students are able to multiply with ease however not all
of the see that multiplication is the inverse (opposite) of multiplication. The
fact that students do not see that multiplication is the opposite of division
shows a gap in their mathematical understanding. Students should see that if
they are able to multiply that they are able to divide. Although students may
not be able to immediately see the connection between multiplication and division, students
should be able to see that there is a connection between the two. Two future
tasks that I could have students do to help their mathematical understanding of
the connection between multiplication and division would be to have students
work on word problems involving multiplication and division and to set up
problems that allow them to use multiplication to help solve division problems.
Through the problem solving and the setting up of number models, students will
get used to seeing multiplication and division together and therefore making
the concepts more concrete for them.
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