Clip 6/29: Standard 1: Making Sense and Perseverance Using Measurement Part E2
Overview
Mathematically proficient students start by explaining to themselves the meaning of a problem and looking for entry points to its solution. They analyze givens, constraints, relationships, and goals… They consider analogous problems, and try special cases and simpler forms of the original problem in order to gain insight into its solution... Younger students might rely on using concrete objects or pictures to help conceptualize and solve a problem.
Tracy Sola has presented students with the Inside Problem Solving problem Measuring Mammals. Students must measure three giraffes to identify which is the tallest. They are only given one cube, and they must prove their responses using numbers.
The students have had a whole-group discussion to make sense of what the problem is asking of them. In this video, students use their experiences measuring with cube trains and individual cubes to try to find strategies for solving the problem. The students use their pencils, hands, and a cube to help solve the problem.