Forgot how to divide fractions? Try this Wichita middle school’s fraction rap

Dividing a fraction by a fraction can be confusing.

There’s something called the reciprocal — or a multiplicative inverse? — and at some point you have to flip a fraction or change something or multiply or . . .

Sigh.

If only there was a catchy little tune to help you remember:

You should keep the first fraction,

Change the sign,

Then you flip the second fraction

And multiply.

Madison McDowell, a math teacher at Mayberry Middle School in Wichita, thought her sixth-graders might need some help remembering the algorithm. So she asked P.C. Patton, a para-educator and coach, to put it to a rap beat.

The result? A fraction rap that has drawn thousands of views on the school’s Facebook page.

“Coach is very musically inclined, so we came up with the lyrics and he did the beat,” McDowell said.

“Now my kids get it stuck in their heads, which is what I want.”

The video features Patton and seventh-grader Austin Chambers, who learned the fraction rap last year and demonstrated it to McDowell’s class this week.

In the first part of the video, Patton mistakenly says it’s a trick for remembering how to multiply fractions, but he meant divide. The kids didn’t notice the mistake, and they knew what he meant, McDowell said.

The rap explains in simple terms the steps for dividing a fraction by a fraction:

1. Leave the first fraction in the equation alone.

2. Change the division sign into a multiplication sign.

3. Flip the second fraction over (finding its reciprocal).

4. And multiply across — numerator to numerator, denominator to denominator.

“The kids seem to like it,” said Patton, a popular member of the Mayberry staff who has his own music label and is an associate pastor at Church on the Street in Wichita.

Other people who have watched the video appreciate the middle-school math refresher as well, he said.

“A lot of people been hitting me up saying, ‘Thanks for the reminder.’”