Suggested pacing: 20-25 minutes

Project this in front of the class and allow students to work.

Purpose: This task provides an opportunity for students to extend their prior knowledge about rounding numbers to develop the understanding that rounding the same number to different place values can produce different results. Additionally, rounding different values to the same place value can produce the same result.

Solution: The original numbers are 203,947 for Skateboard Frenzy and 203,479 for Rapid Racing. If you round Skateboard Frenzy to the hundreds, the answer is 203,900. In comparison, Rapid Racing rounds to 203,600. However, if you round both to the thousands, they both round to 204,000. So, there is a difference when rounding to different place values.

As students work, use the Task Implementation Guide to:

monitor student progress
ask questions to move students' thinking forward
make decisions about the discussion of the work

Featured Standard for Mathematical Practice:

MP.6: Mathematically proficient students communicate precisely to others. They use clear definitions in discussion with others and in their own reasoning. They round accurately and efficiently, express numerical answers with a degree of precision appropriate to the problem context.
MP.8: Students in fourth grade should notice repeated patterns in place value. For example, students use number lines to identify benchmark numbers, midpoints and locate the number on the number line to identify where a number rounds to.

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6. Comparing values when rounding (C)