Interactive tool for learning fractions and basic operations with fractions.

Link to game: https://bit.ly/ucl-fractions

Additional Information for Researchers

Fractions Lab supports both teachers and students through structured resources and interactive design. For teachers, it provides worksheets inspired by “bridging activities” (Geraniou & Mavrikis, 2015), which help integrate the tool into classroom practice by encouraging students to reflect on their in-game experiences and connect them to fraction concepts, while also serving as evidence of learning. For students, the system fosters agency by allowing them to construct fractions, experiment with representations, and engage in tasks that promote conceptual understanding. Introductory activities scaffold learning by familiarizing students with the environment and basic fraction ideas, offering feedback on equivalence and partitioning strategies (Mavrikis et al., 2022). As learners progress, the tool transitions to an open-ended “free play” mode, enabling independent exploration and sharing of their constructions with peers and teachers, thus combining structured guidance with opportunities for autonomy.

REFERENCES

Geraniou, E., & Mavrikis, M. (2015). Building bridges to algebra through a constructionist learning environment. Constructivist Foundations, 10(3), 321-330. http://constructivist.info/10/3/321

Mavrikis, M., Rummel, N., Wiedmann, M., Loibl, K., & Holmes, W. (2022). Combining exploratory learning with structured practice educational technologies to foster both conceptual and procedural fractions knowledge. Educational Technology Research and Development, 70(3), 691–712. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-022-10104-0

Additional Information for Educators

Mathematics teachers can access all relevant resources on this website – https://fractionslab.simple-lab.gr/tasks.html

Students use Fractionlab in order to create different representations of fractions to represent the given fraction in symbolic form. In order to do so, they drag and drop the representation of their choice (number line, object, rectangles, liquids) which can be partitioned and manipulated, developing this way relational understanding of the concept of fractions and equivalence.