Aniekan Ebiefung, Ph.D.

Goals

1. To investigate, analysis, and understand the content of a mathematical problem.
2. To encourage students to use the problem solving process.
3. To encourage students to write and think mathematically.
4. To solve a variety of problems using a variety of techniques.

Rationale

Objectives

1. The student will develop confidence in problem solving.
2. The student will improve writing and mathematical reasoning skills.
3. The student will develop the attitude for solving problems in a logical order.

Methodology

1. Teacher-students teams form a chat room or a newsgroup.
2. Each participating school team can post a challenging problem to the rest of the group. The group should determine the rate and the number of problems to be posted.
3. Each problem must be answered according to the problem-solving process:
   • Understanding the problem: restating the problem, identifying all the known and unknown quantities, and representing the unknowns by variables does this.
   • Devising a plan: What is the solution strategy for solving the problem. In some cases, this involves identifying the relationships among the different quantities and representing these relations by equations, tables, and diagrams. In other cases, estimation, working backwards, and so on may be the appropriate strategy to use. Tell the group the strategy your team has chosen.
   • Carrying out the plan decided in (b)
   • Looking back: Verify to make sure that the solution makes sense and meets all the conditions in the problem.
   • Stating the answer: The answer to the problem must be stated in a complete sentence and in the context of the problem. All units of measurement, if any, must be stated in the answer.
4. A teacher-students team should work together and submit one problem or one solution to a problem at a time.
5. If a solution submitted by a group is wrong, others in the group can point out the error in the submitted solution.
6. The teacher-students team that posted the problem should give a final solution.