District/School Administration PK-16 Program Support Educational Technology
Technology Toolkit

SELECT Math
Boston Public Schools

Description of Activities

The teacher began the lesson by discussing with the class statements like "The ratio of boys to girls in our class is 12 boys to 15 girls," and "The ratio of boys to students in our class is 12 boys to 27 students." The teacher then explained that some of the statements are part-to-part ratios, while others are part-to-whole ratios. She proceeded to ask the class how many of them have made orange juice from concentrate and asked the students how they made it.

Then the teacher directed the students' attention to the digital white board, and explained that they were going to use the computer to simulate the making of frozen orange juice. Students were asked to predict which mixture would taste the most "orangey."

The teacher then proceeded to model these mixtures using the Mixing Orange Juice applet. She explained the part-to-part ratio and the percentage. At their computers, the students shaded in the pitchers that reflected the correct ratio of the mix.

The students worked in groups, using white construction paper and orange and blue stickers to visually represent the ratio of orange juice concentrate to water. In some cases, students were paired and asked to create the ratios using Microsoft Word drawing tools [PDF]. Then they wrote a part-to-part fraction and a percentage to represent the ratio. After the students completed the questions they went in groups to the computers to double-check their work.

The lesson was summarized through a discussion of the variety of strategies students used to solve each problem. For the culminating activity, the class created mixtures of orange juice and concentrate and conducted a taste test of each respective mixture.

Universal Design/Inclusion
The use of technology as a simulation was a way of engaging students in this activity and meeting different learning styles. Students had the opportunity to use the Microsoft Word drawing tools to visually represent a given ratio. In a tactile activity, students were able to use stickers to represent the ratios. Students were also able to create orange juice mix from water and concentrate to taste the results of using the ratios.

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