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Factors
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Abstract
Students learn about factoring by using manipulatives and computer applets.Objectives
Upon completion of this lesson, students will:
- understand the concept of a factor
- identify factors of whole numbers
- explain the relationship between factors, multiplication, divisors, and division
Standards Addressed:
Student Prerequisites
- Technological: Students must be able to:
- perform basic mouse manipulations such as point, click and drag
- use a browser for experimenting with the activities
Teacher Preparation
Students will need: - access to a browser
- access to pencil and paper
Key Terms
| division | The inverse operation of multiplication |
| factor | Any of the numbers or symbols in mathematics that when multiplied together form a product. For example, 3 is a factor of 12, because 3 can be multiplied by 4 to give 12. Similarly, 5 is a factor of 20, because 5 times 4 is 20 |
| multiples | The product of multiplying a number by a whole number. For example, multiples of 5 are 10, 15, 20, or any number that can be evenly divided by 5 |
| multiplication | The operation by which the product of two quantities is calculated. To multiply a number b by c is to add b to itself c times |
- Focus and Review
- Pass out 2 pieces of graph paper to each student.
- Instruct the students to draw all possible rectangles with an area of 10 squares.
- The students should draw squares with dimensions of 1x10, 2x5, 5x2, and 10x1.
- Call on several students to draw their rectangles on the board.
- Next, instruct the students to draw all possible rectangles with an area of 24 squares.
- Continue having the students draw rectangles for different size areas until they recognize that there is a connection between the dimensions of the rectangles and the area of the rectangles.
- Call on a student to explain this connection to the class.
- Objectives
Students will demonstrate their ability to list the factors for different numbers.
- Teacher Input
Explain to the class the term "factor."
- Guided Practice
Work a few problems with the class demonstrating how to using the Factorize and the Factorize 2 applets.
- Independent Practice
Instruct the students to work 10 computer generated problems from each applet.
- Closure
Review the term factor and some different methods that can be used to find the factors of a given number.
