How Much is Each Cake Slice?

Abstract

Among elementary school mathematics content domains, fraction is one of the concepts that students have misconception frequently. In this paper, an activity designed to help students investigate fractions with different shapes for wholes, relate different parts of a whole, and discuss the idea of equal sized parts is described. As part of the activity, students worked with different cake models and determined the prices for different parts of the cakes. Some students understood the idea that equal-sized parts should be priced same; however they had difficulty in relating different parts of a cake. In the paper, student responses are given and suggestions for future implementations are provided.