Dynamic engagement with fractions using GeoGebra

The purpose of this article is to share and describe a number of GeoGebra applets that have specifically been designed to allow students to engage with fractions in a dynamic way. The applets can be used to guide students in their conceptual understanding of fractions as they create and compare visual representations of fractions. Both the bar model and the circular model are used so that students become familiar with different representations of fractions early on. In the basic setting of the bar model applet (Figure 1), three rectangular bars are shown. The purpose of this basic setting is to compare and contrast unit fractions. The top bar is fixed and is provided for illustrative purposes. For the other two bars the denominator can be changed by using the sliders. The denominator represents the number of equal parts the rectangular bar is divided into. The numerator remains fixed at 1 so that different unit fractions (shown in pink and blue for their respective bars) can be compared. When (using the slider on the left) so that it overlaps the unit fraction above it. This is useful when comparing the two unit fractions. Copyright © 2020 Association for Mathematics Education of South Africa (AMESA).