The purpose of this activity is to engage students in using counting strategies to locate and compare numbers to solve a problem.
This activity assumes the students have experience in the following areas:
The problem is sufficiently open ended to allow the students freedom of choice in their approach. It may be scaffolded with guidance that leads to a solution, and/or the students might be given the opportunity to solve the problem independently.
The example responses at the end of the resource give an indication of the kind of response to expect from students who approach the problem in particular ways.
There are three old men, sitting on a bench: Tom, Dick and Harry.
Tom is 78 years old.
Dick is going to have his 80th birthday next year.
Harry had his 70th birthday six years ago.
Put Tom, Dick and Harry in order from youngest to oldest.
The following prompts illustrate how this activity can be structured around the phases of the Mathematics Investigation Cycle.
Introduce the problem. Allow ākonga time to read it and discuss in pairs or small groups.
Discuss ideas about how to solve the problem. Emphasise that for now you want ākonga to say how they would solve the problem, not to actually solve it.
Allow ākonga time to work through their strategy and find a solution to the problem.
Allow ākonga time to check their answers and then either have them pair share with other groups or ask for volunteers to share their solution with the class.
The student uses the information to create a sequence of counting numbers to solve the problem.
Click on the image to enlarge it. Click again to close.
The student writes down a list of possible values for the ages of the men. They use the information to find a set of ages that works.
Printed from https://nzmaths.co.nz/resource/three-bench at 8:46pm on the 6th May 2024