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Problem of the Week (POW)
These Problems of the Week provide you with opportunities to solve problems that will help you build your logical, creative and mathematical thinking. This means, we want to know how you think! When submitting your entry, be sure to explain how you executed the problem solving strategy you used or when you can, show more than one way of solving the problem!
The solutions will be released every Tuesday of the next week so make sure you join in the fun!
Each entry will earn you a merit and your beloved House, a point!
Indi Problem
Focus Strategy: Look for a Pattern
Hint: Make a list then find a pattern.
Solution:
Marbles
Focus Strategy: Make a Table
Hint: Try packaging some marbles in the larger boxes and examine what is left over.
Solution:
Coins
Focus Strategy: Test all possible combinations
Hint: Could you have as many 15 x 1c coins? What is the least number you could have?
Solution:
Money Spent, Money Lost!
Focus Strategy: Work Backwards / Make a Model
Hint: If you lost something, go and look for it backtracking the places you went / stopped by.
Solution
Anne, Betty and Cynthia
Focus Strategy: Break the Problem into Manageable Parts
Hint: If you add the different amounts of money that are given, what does the sum represent?
Solution
Multiplication
Focus Strategy: Trial and Error
Hint: Mathematician's guess and check!
Solution
Train Tunnel
Focus Strategy: Draw a Diagram
How many train lengths did the train travel from the time it entered to the time it cleared the tunnel?
Solution
Check Mates!
Focus Strategy: Draw a Diagram 2
Let the 6 people be A, B, C, D, E, and F. Make a list of the different matches played in the first round.
Solution
400 All Up!
Focus Strategy: Make a Systematic List
Sum the first 2 terms, the first 3 terms, and the first 4 terms. What pattern do the sums form?
Solution
Two Dogs
Focus Strategy: Draw a Diagram
How many seconds does it take the first dog to get to the starting point?
Solution
Use the Mathematician's Toolbox
Investigative Tasks
These tasks help develop our mathematical literacy! They allow us to examine situations using various techniques and in the process of exploration, we develop our critical thinking skills that can be applied to other problems. They are open-ended problems that may have infinitely many ways of solving or showing the answer. So think outside of the box and be creative when solving them!
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