This document provides announcements and an introduction to problem solving for an online class. It announces that there will be no class on Memorial Day and assignments due dates. It then defines problem solving as figuring out solutions to unfamiliar problems and discusses strategies like understanding the problem and looking for patterns. Students are assigned a problem to solve and present their solution and process in a Flipgrid video by Saturday.

1. Welcome
We will begin shortly.

2. A few announcements
1. We do not meet on Monday May 25th due to Memorial
Day.
2. The schedule for next week is moved Tues – Friday.
3. There are no scheduled zoom sessions during Finals
week.
4. Assignments coming up to be due:
 Homework packets are due a week from Today.
 Problem solution (via Flipgrid) due Friday
5. Quizizz Due by Wed June 3rd

3. Problem Solving
So what is problem solving?
• Problem solving is the process of figuring out
a solution when you don’t know what to do.
–You don’t know a prescribed procedure or recipe
to use
–It isn’t similar to a problem you’ve seen before
–Your first approach might not work!
–You need to be willing to abandon an approach
and start over

4. Problem Solving
In other words, you need to
make sense of problems
and persevere in solving them

5. What Problem Solving Is Not
• Completing something that you have done
several times (i.e tying your shoes)
• An procedural math problem:
–What is 12 x 6
• Traditional Word Problems
–One baked lasagna dish can feed 12 people. How
many people will 6 lasagna dishes feed?

6. Why do we teach
“problem solving”
• We teach you problem solving skills to help
you develop strategies you can use to tackle
problems in the real-world.

7. Problem Solving Strategies
• In the chat room, type a few problem
solving strategies that you can think of.

8. Problem Solving Strategies
• Understand it – Figure out what is important.
• Compare it to a problem you have already solved.
• Keep track of and learn from mistakes.
• Draw a Diagram
• Look for a Pattern
• Guess and Check (Trial and Error)
• Make a Table
• Work Backwards
• Solve a Simpler Problem
• Make a model

9. General Problem Solving Process

10. Experiencing Problem Solving
• You are going to be given one of 6 problems
–Boring Baseball
–Fishing Nets
–Healthy Savings
–Aunt Alice
–Train Rods
–Checkerboard Choices
• See the spreadsheet in google classroom to
find out which one you are assigned.

11. You will be randomly assigned a problem.
You will need to solve the problem in a way that
makes sense. Then you will need to explain your
solution with a flipgrid video. (5 min max)
DUE SAT @ 6 PM
You can choose any type of video you want -
Talking head, screen capture, animation, comic
strip, whatever. You get to choose how you
communicate the solution to the problem. I
encourage you to be creative. Heck, you can
even make a music video!

12. Be sure to talk about these things in your video:
• Introduce yourself
• Introduce the problem
• What was your strategy for solving the problem?
• Were there any difficulties? How did you persevere?
• Your solution.

13. Boring Baseball

14. Fishing Nets
• An ancient fishing civilization used to create fishing
nets by creating a wood frame in the shape of a 16-
sided regular polygon (see picture) . Using woven
rope, they would attach all of the vertices to each
other (except the ones that were already
connected by wood). How many pieces of rope did
they need to spin for each net?

16. Aunt Alice
Aunt Alice gave each of her three nieces a number of silver dollars
equal to their ages. The youngest felt that this was unfair. They agreed
to redistribute the money. The youngest would split half of her silver
coins evenly with the other two sisters. The middle sister would then
give each of the others 4 silver coins. Finally, the oldest was to split half
of her silver dollars equally between the two younger sisters. After
exchanging money, each girl had 16 silver dollars. How old are the sisters?

17. Train Rods

18. Checkerboard Choices
A man offers to pay you $150 to complete a job. His friend
(who he is playing checkers with) suggests you charge $1 for
every square on the checkerboard to complete the job.
Which is the better deal (for you)?

19. Your flipgrid video is due by Saturday.
In our next zoom session, I will check
in with you if you need assistance and
I will give you some time to
collaborate with people who have the
same problem. (you still need to
record your own video)
Monday May 25 / May 26
-- No meetings due to Memorial Day
Homework packets are due May 27
REMINDERS