Ratios and Proportions are very challenging topics for many students.
This stations activity makes a difficult topic easier! With a variety of different problems, it’s a great way to warm up or review before a test. It’s a fun, engaging activity that will get the students’ bodies and brains moving simultaneously!
Proportional reasoning is a difficult skill, and this activity helps develop that skill by providing a variety of questions in a variety of forms. It also allows the students to collaborate!
This mixed review will also help you zero on in where some of your students may need assistance within this topic!
- Common Core Math Standards from 6.RP and 7.RP
- 20 stations total; 2 stations per page; 1 problem per card
How can you use this activity?
- Cut out and laminate stations so you can use them every class period and every year!
- I typically have students work in partners, but BOTH of them have to fill out the student information sheet, showing work. Students could also work individually. Working with more than one person gets too crowded, and some students skate by without participating at all.
- Each group will start at a station. They will be given a certain amount of time to complete each task. At the end of the time, they will switch to the next station. Example: If a student starts at station 1, they will go to station 2. If they are at station 20, they will go to station 1.
- There should never be more than two people at a station (unless you have more than 40 students…)
- Encourage (or require) students to write down EVERY problem so that if they run out of time on one station, they can finish earlier problems at another station.
- Give students a specific time to complete each task. (1-2 min) Use a timer that goes off to help students know when to switch stations. This way, when the timer goes off, students will just get up and move without direction. Determine the amount of time based on the skill set of each group. I give some classes more time than others if needed. If I start with 2 minutes and all of the students are finishing quickly, I will decrease the time as we go. Usually 2 minutes is too much!
- I use this resource every year in the middle school math classroom. It can take up to a whole class period depending how much time is given to the students per station.