Laurie says summer is 1/4 of the year. maria says summer is 3/12 of the year. who is correct? explain

Both are correct because 3/12 can be simplified to 1/4 :

3÷3=1
12÷3=4

3/12= 1/4

hope this helped

Oh, oh! This is such a tricky question...
Guess what!
Both of them are correct. Why?
Because if we simplify 3/12, we get 1/4th!
(How do you simplify?)
3/12 = 1/4
Because if we divide both "3" and "12" in 3/12 by 3, we get 1 instead of 3 and 4 instead of 12.

I hope you've got it! ;)