This problem solving activity has a number (addition and subtraction) focus.
I own 5 cars and a very large garage.
If I can see 2 cars parked outside the garage, how many are inside?
How many different ways can I park my cars inside and outside the garage?
This problem builds the essential understanding that numbers are made up of other, smaller numbers. This helps to develop two ideas: first, that there is a finite set of whole number pairs for a given number (for example, 5 can be thought of as 0 and 5, 1 and 4 , 2 and 3, and no other pairs can be found); second, that numbers are uniquely paired (if 2 is one of the parts of 5, the other part must be 3). Students need to investigate these relationships multiple times to see the importance in remembering that 2 and 3 is always 5. This is foundational to developing understanding of addition and subtraction.
The context of this problem could be adapted to reflect many other contexts (e.g. poi or rākau in a box, trains in tunnels, shells in a bucket).
I own 5 cars and a very large garage.
If I can see 2 cars parked outside the garage, how many are inside?
How many different ways can I park my cars inside and outside the garage?
Because 2 + 3 = 5 , if there are 2 cars inside the garage there must be 3 outside.
6 possibilities: (0, 5) (1, 4) (2, 3) (3, 2) (4, 1) (5, 0)
Printed from https://nzmaths.co.nz/resource/cars-garages at 11:58pm on the 26th April 2024