Segment Strips and Grids
The segment strips and grid can be used to represent dimensions of rectangles whose areas depend on the unit of measurement chosen. Suppose we say that three blue segments represent one linear unit:
Using this linear unit, we construct a square with an area of 1u2, and subdivide it into various fractional areas for exploration. Look at the picture above, can you picture a square unit, and then
Now, let's change the linear unit to 1 pink segment. Now, what is the area of each subdivision above? What fraction of the square is each part now? What is the area and perimeter of the whole square?
We can apply this model to other rectangles to find areas and dimensions. For example, what is the area of the shaded part of this rectangle if the length of 2 yellow segments is one linear unit?
What would the area be if one orange were the linear unit? How about one green segment? 5 orange? You can see there are lots of possibilities for having fun with fractions at the same time as fraction products and quotients concepts are being developed and reinforced. We'll take a more focused look at fraction operations in Modeling Fraction Operations.