How much money do you earn for 1,000,000 streams on Spotify? We begin this problem by thinking like a spy and figuring out what information we have and what information we need. Initially, students may not be aware of what information they know and what information they need to know. Having students…
How many ducklings are there? We begin this problem by thinking like a spy and figuring out what information we have and what information we need. Students might think that they just need the image below (there are much higher resolution versions you can print or project using the “Download Lesson Files”…
How many Hanukkah candles will we need? How many Hanukkah candles would we need if Hanukkah lasted 10 nights? 50 nights? n nights? We begin this problem by thinking like a spy and figuring out what information we have and what information we need. The video shows us that candles are being…
When will the winning Minecraft pickaxe finish? We begin this problem by thinking like a spy and figuring out what information we have and what information we need. The video shows us that there are six kinds of pickaxes competing in a race. Once the race starts the gold pickaxe takes an…
Download The Situation A homeowner tiled her floor with pennies to make the beautiful design seen below. The Challenge(s) How much were those pennies? Question(s) To Ask These questions may be useful in helping students down the problem solving path: What’s a guess that is too low? What’s a guess that is too high? What’s…
Download The SituationFrito-Lay produces packages of chips that contain a variety of flavors like the package below. The circles on the bags’ lower right corner normally displays the quantity of each type of chips. With 20 bags in the package and four flavors, it would be natural to assume that there would be 5…
Download The Situation The Challenge(s) How effective is each password requirement in making a password take longer to hack using brute force? What is the longest amount of time it would take a computer to hack your password? What recommendations would you make regarding password requirements so that they are as secure as possible?…
How many packages of hot dogs and hot dog buns should he purchase so that there are no extra hot dogs or hot dog buns? These questions may be useful in helping students down the problem solving path: How many hot dogs come in a package? How many hot dog buns come…
How many calories is one _____________? How many ___________ could you eat if you only wanted to eat exactly ________ calories? (one-step equation) How many ___________ could you eat if you only wanted to eat at most ________ calories? (one-step inequality) How many more _________ could you eat if you have already eaten ______ of them…
A company named Hammermill manufactures copy paper that it claims to be “99.99% jam free.” How many paper jams would you expect to have happen? How many paper jams would you expect to have happen in one ream? How many paper jams would you expect to have happen in two reams? How many paper…
This problem’s success depends on students having a sufficient understanding of how a plane measures a vehicle’s speed from the air. The picture below may be useful to help “develop the question” as Dan Meyer has recently blogged about.
NFL cornerback Patrick Peterson received a $15,361,000 signing bonus as part of a five-year, $70 million contract extension. However, he didn’t immediately cash the check. When asked why, he said, “I just haven’t gotten around to it.” How much interest money did Peterson lose by not immediately cashing his check? These questions may be useful…
You are hosting a barbeque that starts very soon and you want to make as many biscuits as possible with the ingredients you already have. How many biscuits can you make using the available ingredients? These questions may be useful in helping students down the problem solving path: What ingredients do you need to…
How many times bigger should the school be? These questions may be useful in helping students down the problem solving path: How big would the school be if it was twice as big? How big would the school be if it was five times as big? What size would a student have to…
Freeway signs tell people how far away an exit is by listing distances as fractions of a mile. Where is the freeway sign located? These questions may be useful in helping students down the problem solving path: How can we figure out what the fractions represent? How many exit distances do we need…
The A10 motorway is a highway in the Netherlands. This highway is called a “ring road” because it forms a relatively circular pattern around the city of Amsterdam. How many kilometers do you have to drive on the A10 motorway to drive from the exit for s116 to the exit for s113? …
You need 1/3 of a cup of butter for a recipe. The stick of butter only has a marking for 1/4 of a cup. How can we tell where to cut the butter so you have 1/3 of a cup? How can we tell where to cut the butter so you have 1/2…
