BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:researchseminars.org CALSCALE:GREGORIAN X-WR-CALNAME:researchseminars.org BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:James Tanton (Outsmart Education) DTSTART:20260908T160000Z DTEND:20260908T170000Z DTSTAMP:20260825T025048Z UID:ESME/67 DESCRIPTION:Title: Fr actions Are Hard! A Mathematical Overview of a Troublesome Topic\nby J ames Tanton (Outsmart Education) as part of Online Seminar On Undergraduat e Mathematics Education\n\nInteractive livestream: https://cornell.zoom.us /j/92415199317\n\nAbstract\nThe school curriculum is shaped by a fundament al tension: while much of mathematics is motivated by real-world intuition \, the mathematics that emerges ultimately outgrows any single model that inspired it.\n\nFractions sit squarely in this tension\, and it is never f ully resolved in the curriculum. Students first meet fractions as commands —circle a third of the kittens—and then as concrete parts of a whole —a third of a pie. Fractions are not numbers per se until we place them on the number line and suggest that they are. Questions about multiplicati on and division then pull us back toward real-world thinking—“of means multiply\,” portions of portions\, and the area model—further blurrin g what a fraction seems to be.\n\nWhere do students land after all this on what a fraction is and why its arithmetic works? No wonder so many studen ts reach high school and college mathematics disliking\, or even hating\, fractions. Let’s see if we can turn that around!\n LOCATION:https://researchseminars.org/talk/ESME/67/ URL:https://cornell.zoom.us/j/92415199317 END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR