Problem Solving in Maths

The last few weeks we have been practising our addition skills with some problem solving activities.

The first problem we worked on was this….

The first part we were able to solve quite quickly, however she of us found the other parts to the problem quite challenge. It was important that we had a growth mindset when working out this problem. Some of us showed great persistence and when ever we made mistakes we were able to learn from them because they helped us work out what we needed to change to get the problem solved. Check out some of us explaining how we solved this problem below.

IMG 0610 from skye baldwin on Vimeo.

IMG 0609 from skye baldwin on Vimeo.

Our next problem solving activity was where we were given a map of Australia with the flight distances to many cities around Australia. We had to use these distances to calculate what the total distance would be to fly to some of these cities around Australia. This was an interesting lesson because not only did we practise the skill of addition but we learnt how far away in kilometers some place are around our country. We began by adding just two distances together because the flight was quite short.

We then were given some extra challenging questions where we had to fly longer distances which included some ‘stop overs’ to other places to get to our final destination. Some flights had two or more choices of the pathway to get to our final destination, so we had to choose which flight would be the shortest and calculate the answer. Here is the map below that we used and some of our working out!

The final challenge was to work out which order we would travel to each capital city that would be the longest distance travelled in total.

Problem solving in maths can be challenging, fun and rewarding. It’s great when the problems challenge us because it means that our brains are growing with all the new knowledge and skills we are using.

What problem did you enjoy solving and why?

What did you find challenging about the problem solving activity?

Why was having a growth mindset really important for you when solving these problems?

7 thoughts on “Problem Solving in Maths

  1. Dear Mrs Baldwin,
    I liked the second to last because it was very challenging

    I found that it was challenging because Some was long and hard

    So you don’t give up

    ๐Ÿ˜€From Zac๐Ÿ˜€๐Ÿคก๐Ÿคก๐Ÿคก๐Ÿคก๐Ÿคก๐Ÿคก๐Ÿ’Ž๐Ÿ’ด๐Ÿ’ถ๐Ÿ’ถ๐Ÿ’ถ๐Ÿ’ถ๐Ÿ’ถ๐Ÿ’Ž

  2. Dear Miss Baldwin,

    I enjoyed solving the map because it was fun how they got harder as we solved the questions.

    I found it challenging when the questions got harder because you had to solve more numbers.

    It is good to have a growth mindset in this activity because is you give up and free out you won’t learn the maths task that you set us.

    From Constantina ๐Ÿถ๐Ÿ˜

  3. Dear Mrs Baldwin,
    My favourite problem to solve was the flight active because i licked adding up big numbers.
    I enjoyed adding up all the big numbers and it was fun to find out the answers.
    Having a growth mindset helped me with this activity because i thought about things like this.Keep trying. Don’t give up. I can’t do it YET.
    From Matilda๐Ÿฆ

  4. dear mrs Baldwin

    my favourite problem solving activity was the flight distances because it was very challenging and it got us to do lots of sums that would challenge are abilities

    the thing i found challenge was adding up all the large numbers because you had to carry over numbers and it could get quite confusing because you could forget which carry over belong to which column

    its important to have a growth mindset because if you don’t you won’t find the answer that you were looking for
    it was import

  5. Dear Mrs Baldwin

    I liked doing the questions because they were fun to solve and they were a challenge.

    i thought it was challenging because some of the questions were confusing but i got it in the end.

    I think having a growth mindset towards problems is impotent so you succeed in every question.

  6. dear Mrs Baldwin,
    the problem I liked doing the most was the flight one because we got to learn where there are a lot of the places you can go from Adelaide to somewhere else. What i found challenging was how to make 1 answer when the flights were getting bigger and bigger. Why having the growth mindset was so important because you learn new things and how to do it.

    from Ruby

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