Using Bar Models To Solve Multi Step Fraction Problems

Hi, I'm Luke, and today we're going to be looking at how to use a bar model to solve a word problem involving fractions. So let's refer to the question. Brian's football team won 2/3 of the 39 games they played. Assuming there were no ties, how many games has Brian's team lost? So remember, we can use a bar model to represent our whole. Now, in this case, our hole is 39 games. Now, refer back to the question. Brian's football team won 2/3. Ask the pupils, what does this mean for the number of parts that we are working with? They should be able to tell you that we are working with three equal parts. Now, how do we represent this on the bar model? The number of games that they have won is 2/3. So we can shade this in. What does this mean for the remaining part? Well, if this is the number of games that have been won, this must be the number of games that are lost. Using the information they have in front of them, this is the 39 games. The fact that we have three whole parts, they should be able to work out that we need to do 39 divided by our denominator, which is three, and that gives us 13. It is now clear that each part equals 13. So Brian's team has won 13 plus 13 games and they have lost 13 games. We are now able to answer the question, and that is how you use a bar model to solve a word problem involving fractions.