The purpose of this activity is to support students in identifying the relative position of integers on a number line.
It is crucial that students integrate their knowledge of negative integers with their mental understanding of how a number line can be used to order, locate, and compare whole, positive numbers. The number line also develops the idea of an integer as a vector with either positive or negative direction and magnitude (length).
Next steps
For example, what numbers are at positions A, B, C, and D?
Look to see if students’ responses are consistent. For example, A and B have the same distance from zero. In mathematics we say that the absolute value of A and B are the same and write |A|=|B|. Since A is half-way between 0 and -20 it must be -10 and B must be 10.
Printed from https://nzmaths.co.nz/resource/integer-number-lines at 12:34am on the 8th May 2024