Education Technology


Random Remainders

Activity Overview

Students explore the use of a calculator to investigate the relationship between divisors and remainders in whole-number division.

Before the Activity

  • See the attached PDF file for detailed instructions for this activity
  • Print student activity sheet page 4 from the attached PDF file for your class
  • During the Activity

    Distribute the page to the class.

    Follow the activity procedures:

  • Use the calculator to divide a variety of numbers by seven and find the remainder
  • Collect data about the remainders
  • Record remainder data in a frequency table and graph it
  • Understand the relationship between the divisor and the remainders
  • Investigate the remainders generated by three other divisors
  • After the Activity

  • Review student results
  • As a class, discuss questions that appeared to be more challenging
  • Re-teach concepts as necessary