Michael Flynn

problem solvers: solutions: How many tickets?

Flynn et al., presents the use of how many tickets problem which challenges students to consider the relationship between quantities in the problem and to use that understanding to arrive at a solution. Among other things, the solutions are from the fifth-grade students in Walter Starks class at PS 108q, the Captain Vincent G. Fowler School in South Ozone Park, New York.

Problem: Mice in a cage

Students’ ability to examine and reason about number is an awareness that can be cultivated from a very young age. Through rich story problems, students are given the opportunity to make sense of a situation and devise a plan to determine a solution. They can engage in mathematics in meaningful ways and consider the reasonableness of their answers when they take ownership of their solution strategy.