Week 2 - Problem Solving

In class this week we were asked: 'would you rather have $500 or quarters stacked up as tall as you?' and later we were also given a tug of war problem shown below.

We were asked these questions and then left on our own to find a way to come up with a solution. With this method of teaching we were all able to explore our own way of problem solving. After each coming to a solution we then got into groups and discussed how we each came to our solutions. We found that there were many different ways to solve each of these questions all coming to the same answer. This shows that there is no one way to solve a math problem and that students should be encouraged to express their own ideas on how to solve the given problem

In the Dan Meyer video on the math classroom, he talked about taking the steps out of math problems and letting the students come up with the necessary steps to reach the solution. This method of teaching brings problem solving into the classroom and it also helps the students to get a better understanding of math. Instead of giving the students a system or formula to solve the problem, they have to figure out what information they will need to find the answer and what steps they would have to go through to get there. This promotes critical thinking and it helps the students to determine what knowledge is important and what is not necessary for solving the question. I would like to incorporate this method to student problem solving in my future math classes.