Ten Questions to Ask about a Math Problem

This week Joe Schwartz blogged about his fifth graders learning about order of operations and connecting the concept to solving number stories.

The students were given these number stories and asked to pick one.

They were then asked to pick one of these choices and change the story.

These are just two examples of what Schwartz's students came up with. He had volunteers share their new problems with the class, and the class was asked to hold up one, two, three, or four fingers to identify which way the story was changed. The students found the activity to be "creative", "imaginative", and "fun". As teachers, we all understand the importance of finding activities that are not only educational, but keep the students interest. Schwartz was able to have the students solve all of the different stories they had created.