MAT150 Developing Problem-Solving Skills Session 6

Math Trail at Bolles School

Examples of activities that can include problem-solving tasks are maths trail (see photograph), making art project (such as animals) using recycled / reused materials as well as games.

In the photograph, teachers of early grades were engaged in a maths trail task that required them to find the number of cubes needed to fill the empty water fountain.

The slides includes stimulus for problems-solving activities.


Once a teacher had a problem - she did not know which part of the rectangle is referred to as 'length'. Problems are not limited to mathematical ones. In class, we discussed examples of real-life and real-world problems. (in response to her problem, I would say the length of the longer side and the length of the shorter side but when we are lazy we simply say 'length' - longer side - and 'breadth' - shorter side.)

Slide 2 - The use of children's books to design problem-solving activities. we previously discussed The Doorbell Rang. Here a page from The Tortoise and The Hare is used. Can counting be problematic?

Slide 3 - The people who built this vertical garden needed to know how many pots of plants are needed. They had to solve a problem.

Slide 4 - Can this African painting inspire a problem? The scarves come in three colours, so do the blouse and the skirt. Here, we see six different outfits. How different outfits are possible?

Slide 5 - This artefact inspired a patterning problems among some teachers in the class. Can you use this to design a problem for young children?

Slide 6 - An ancient game (British Museum) from Mesopotamia. Is playing a game such as this one problem solving?

Slide 7 - Stone Rosette (British Museum) from 3300 B.C. The making of such rosettes is both an problem as well as an exercise. Explain.

Stimulus for Writing Problem-Solving Tasks from Jimmy Keng

Photographs of the course are available on my Facebook.