Math Can Be This Colorful: Creative Activities on Fractions

Math isn’t boring or dry. Quite the opposite: Math can also successfully challenge the creative side of the brain, and anyone who doesn’t believe that is welcome to see for themselves in our photo gallery below. As an alternative learning assessment on the topic of fractions in 6th grade, numerous creative projects were produced last school year. Math teacher Malte Klimczak shared some examples of the work from the classes that he and his colleague Nina Kvachko supervised during math class. This alternative learning assessment served as a creative replacement for a traditional class test.

 

Task: Create a poster or handout

Math and creativity? What does that look like?

This was an individual assignment in which the student was required to create an informative poster or lab book on the topic of “Working with Fractions” using colors, pictures, or diagrams. Within a specified time frame of 10 school hours, the assignment consisted of required and optional tasks.

 

Present the most important rules for working with fractions

For the required tasks, the most important rules of fraction calculations were to be presented, and at least one clear example was to be used for each rule. Among the five optional tasks, for example, students had the option to design a fold-out “fraction pizza slice” made of paper that explains the addition of fractions, or a “fraction scale” made of cardboard that demonstrates the balance when expanding and reducing fractions.

 

Guidelines for Project Planning

For the planning phase of the project, each student received general guidelines applicable to everyone on how to approach the task in a meaningful and goal-oriented manner. Assessments were based on a point system using a matrix that evaluated completeness, examples and explanations provided, creativity and design, completion of the assigned task, and structure and organization. There were also written comments that explained the scoring and grading to the sixth graders as clearly as possible.