Sector 1
Targets topics typically addressed in grade 3
Rather than de-mystifying fractions, Frax keeps them from being mysterious in the first place! Throughout Sector 1, students learn that fractions are just like other numbers—they have predictable names and locations on the number line, and they can be compared to each other.
Every Sector 1 lesson focuses on developing number sense with fractions through scaffolded tasks and interactive representations.
Key topics include:
- Building a fraction up from unit fractions
- Comparing a fraction’s size to 1
- Understanding how a numerator and denominator work together to create a single value (length)
- Comparing fractions to each other
- Locating fractions on a number line
- Estimating a fraction’s position on a number line
Students become proficient at using the number line, not only to locate fractions and mixed numbers but to reason with (and about) them. Shaded area models are presented as an alternative means of representing fractions and mixed numbers. The concept of equivalence is also presented and practiced, and students are introduced to ruler measurement with fractions. Sector 1 ends with the Sector Review room, providing mixed practice in a fun, arcade-like environment. By answering questions correctly, students earn additional tokens they can spend in the store to personalize their spaceship cabins!
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Sector 2
Targets topics typically addressed in grade 4
Building on the solid conceptual understandings and number sense they gained in Sector 1, students explore the different ways fractions can be used in Sector 2.
Students decompose large fractions into sums of smaller fractions, which directly leads to an intuitive understanding of what it means to add and subtract fractions with like denominators. They learn how to generate equivalent fractions, which opens the door to powerful techniques for comparing fractions with unlike denominators, as well as adding fractions in tenths and hundredths (a gateway to decimal concepts). Sector 2 also introduces students to decimal notation for those same place values.
Additionally, students learn how to multiply a whole number by a fraction, convert mixed numbers into fractions greater than 1 (and vice versa), and use equivalence to efficiently measure objects with a ruler in eighths. Comparison and number line estimation skills are embedded throughout Frax, ensuring that students maintain and build on the strong number sense vital for mature fraction work (and algebra readiness). After completing all Sector 2 missions, students unlock the Sector Review room where they practice skills and earn additional tokens to customize their cabin or a farm for their space animals in the new Happy Acres Farm.
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