Apply Math Problem Solving to real life situations—especially in the home. Select an activity in which students typically participate—group of friends or family going to dinner and the movies; buying new clothes for school; baking chocolate chip cookies for a party—and have them work with their families and/or friends to determine the costs in advance.
Make sure they fully understand the problem For example, let’s say they are baking chocolate chip cookies for a family reunion. The recipe makes 16 cookies, but there will be 24 family members at the reunion. Encourage them to think through the problem:
- How many cookies should they bake? Will each person eat one cookie, or will some people eat more than one? Is it okay to have left over cookies?
- How will they modify the recipe to accommodate all of the guests?
- Where will they find weekly prices for the ingredients (e.g., grocery store flyer, Internet, etc.)?
- How will they write the problem once they have the information they need?
Once they have the information, have them compute the math problem using the Solve It! approach. For more problem-solving extension activities, check out the Solve It! products https://www.exinn.net/solve-it/