Some Problem-Solving Ideas

1. Get the students involved in a problem wh re they go through the different stages of the problem-solving process (in groups), with the teacher directing the problem solving inquiry. An example is the ant and sugar problem. An ant is at one corner of a box and wants to get to a sugar cube is at the diagonally opposite corner. The ant can walk along the edges of the box, never walking along the same edge twice and never moving downwards. How many different routes are there? A similar problem appears in Burton (1984), pp. 118-119. Each group of students should pay attention to its particular group strategy used and try to identify it from the list of strategies. Each group should try to identify the process it went through either as a group or individually within the group as it came up with possible strategies to solve the problem. Each group of students should discuss the problem and come to an understanding of what it is asking for; conferencing about the problem can assist the students in clarifying their expressed ideas. The teacher can help the group to understand the problem by asking questions which open up the conversation and by asking the students to convince others and to justify their strategy. The students should make a record of their solution process, including all their `rough work. ' They can then present their finished product/process to the class. If teachers do one problem like this in depth each week they will enable their students to explore many different strategies. As new strategies emerg