PROBLEM POSING

Without posed problems, there are no problems to solve.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Who For

poses mathematics problems?

whom are mathematics questions posed?

WHAT IS PROBLEM POSING?

Dunker

described problem posing in mathematics as the generation of a new problem or the formulation of a given problem. (Dunker, 1945).

Silver

described problem posing as it is refers to both the generation of new problems and the re-formulation of given problems, posing can occur before, during or after the solution of a problem (Silver, 1993).

Stoyanova

has defined mathematical problem posing as the process by which, on the basis of concrete situations, meaningful mathematical problems are formulated (Stoyanova, 1996).

SKILLS IN PROBLEM POSING

1) Use problem-solving strategies to investigate and solve the posed problems. 2) Formulate problems from every day and mathematical situations. 3) Use a proper approach for posing problems up to the mathematical situations. 4) Recognize relationships among different topics in mathematics. 5) Generalize solutions and strategies to new problem situations. 6) Pose complex problems as well as simple problems. 7) Use different subjects' applications in posing mathematical problems. 8) The ability of generating questions to improve problem posing strategies like: - How can I finish the problem? - Can I pose another questions? - How many solutions can I find?

HOW ARE PROBLEM-POSING SKILLS RELATED TO PROBLEM- SOLVING SKILLS?

Silver

and Cai found that students problemsolving performance was highly correlated with their problem- posing performance. Compared to less successful problem solvers, good problem solvers generated more, and more complex, mathematical problems.

BENEFITS OF PROBLEM POSING

It

frees learners from the one-answer syndrome. It enables learners to view common things in uncommon ways. It legitimizes asking questions. It fosters the predicting, conjecturing, and testing of hypotheses. It builds a spirit of adventure, intellectual excitement, and class unity. It demonstrates the spiraling nature of inquiry learning. No problem is really solved. It develops a sense of personal ownership and responsibility for mathematical investigations.

WAYS TO CHANGE A PROBLEM

Some ways to change a problem to create new problems Change the numbers. Change the geometry. Change the operation. Change the objects under study. Remove a condition, or add new conditions. Remove or add context. Repeat a process.

CHANGE THE NUMBERS

This is the most obvious way to change a problem. Give your students one or more problems and ask them to identify any stated or implied numbers. When considering numerical changes to a problem, many different domains and representations can prove interesting.

CHANGE THE GEOMETRY

Any problem with a geometric setting is ripe for new variants. The simplest problem-posing maneuver is to change the shapes involved. Different categories of shapes that suggest possible substitutions include polygons and their number of sides, regular versus non-regular polygons.

Changes of dimension can yield exciting challenges and patterns. Continuous and discrete spaces (e.g., the lattice of points with integer coordinates) usually require distinct methods of solution and offer contrasting conclusions

CHANGE THE OPERATION

Algebraic: We can switch between addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, exponentiation, and roots. We can also change the order of operations.

Geometric: We can change between scaling, translating, rotating, and other transformations. We can construct medians rather than perpendiculars. We can trisect or n-sect rather than bisect an angle, segment, or area.

Analytic: We can change the function involved (example make it exponential rather than linear) Probabilistic: We can substitute a predictable behavior for a random one). For example, Juancho, a fifth grader, altered the Connect the Dots problem so that the jump size was chosen randomly for each step;

Start with a circle with 16 points, equally spaced: You are going to make a shape by jumping around this circle. Pick a number, j, that determines how far you will move around the circle with each jump. Start at the top point (labeled 0), and draw a segment to the point j steps away. Begin each new jump where the previous one ends and continue this process until one of your jumps returns to the starting point, 0.

CHANGES THE OBJECTS UNDER STUDY

Rather than just look at real numbers, we can consider vectors, matrices, or functions (e.g., polynomials) as the operands. For example, elementary school students often discover that 2 + 2 = 2 * 2, but find no further examples (except perhaps 0 and 0).

REMOVE OR ADD CONTEXT

If a problem comes with a particular setting, we can make it abstract by removing any nonmathematical details. Alternatively, we can add a story to an otherwise abstract problem. For example, it is easy to dissect a rectangle into four equal pieces, but when that rectangle becomes a cake and there are four kids who each want their fair share, a whole realm of new and difficult mathematics problems emerge

You can turn each problem-posing method into a practice activity. Ask students to superimpose a story or context on an abstract problem of their choosing (e.g., a geometric construction or a system of equations they find by scanning through a textbook).

REPEAT A PROCESS

iteration can lead to surprising and beautiful mathematical questions and results. We can repeat any operation, such as squaring a number, bisecting a side, or rotating a figure, to yield ever more complicated objects or sequences for study.

WITH STARTING POINT IN SYMBOLIC SCHEMES

The teacher gives the formula a+b=x and requires as many examples of exercises as possible. Then the teacher asks for the formulation of varied problems. The position of the unknown is changed ( a+x=c; x=a+b ; x+b=c ; etc.) with the same requirements (proposing various exercises and problems). The same procedure is carried out, starting from one of the models a-b=x, a+b+c=x, a-bc=x, etc., or from graphical models, diagrams, tables. Children were asked to do the tasks described above in a gradual progression of internalizing, which emphasizes recurrent cycles of understanding: orally, mentally, in writing (without or with minimum verbalization, and the result is required for checking). Letters are to be used just accidentally, or gradually, depending on the students level and teachers knowledge about their appropriate use. Usually, instead of a,b,c,x, other symbols more familiar to children were used as boxes or shells for the substitutions.

EXAMPLE 1

1+1=? Assume the student has already figured out that the result is 2. By increasing a term on the left by 1 the total on the left is increased.

In order to get the equality back, one should increase by 1 the right side as well.

Applying the enlightening idea repeatedly, the student may even conceive of the notion that adding any number on the left can be balanced by adding the same number on the right. The left hand side is a sum of two terms. A second observation can be made to the effect that it does not matter to which of the terms the number has been added. And then a third one that the number does not have to be wholly added to one of the terms - it can be split in any way imaginable.

EXAMPLE 2

One of two brothers is 7 years old while the other is only 5. As you can see, the sum of their ages is 12. Please invent another problem and solve it. Even if the following was obtained as (7 + 1) and (5 - 1)

One of two brothers is 8 years old while the other is only 4. As you can see, the sum of their ages is 12. One of two sisters is 7 years old while the other is only 5. As you can see, the sum of their ages is 12.

DIFFERENT KINDS OF PROBLEM POSING

PROBLEM

The mathematics teacher assigns an assignment to her students. The boy asked the Monster to answer his assignments in his behalf.

PROBLEM POSING WITH PLOT

Examples: List actions in a logical order Clues to identify a part of the story Compare actions Make predictions based on evidence Connect the plot to a math concept Redesign the plot to include mathematics A math walk through the story Explore conjectures, estimations, generalizations

MATHEMATICAL TASK WITH PLOT

Lets pretend that the Monster in our story charges the boy 35 for each multiplication problem and 60 for each division problem he solves.

How many types of each problem did the Monster solve if the boys bill is $15?

How many different solutions can you find?

PROBLEM POSING WITH CHARACTER

Make the Character(s) come to life Put the Character(s) in the students classroom, bedroom, kitchen, or community park Make the story real to children: what open-ended tasks can characters face?

MATHEMATICAL TASK WITH CHARACTER

Lets pretend that the Monsters Magic Calculator has broken. Only the 5, the 2, the , the , and the = buttons work.

How did the Monster use the Magic Calculator to get the homework answers of: -10 1 3 10 24 100

PROBLEM POSING WITH ILLUSTATIONS

Illustrations can: Capture students interest and imagination Visualize the mathematics Enhance the details of the narrative Place mathematics in a meaningful context

MATHEMATICAL TASK WITH ILLUSTRATIONS

How many different monster faces can you make from 4 different sets of scary eyes, 3 different eerie noses, and 3 different sets of pointy teeth?

PROBLEM POSING WITH SETTING

Consider how the students can relate to the setting. Settings help to create integrated teaching units.

Students can begin to see the mathematics in the everyday.

MATHEMATICAL TASK WITH SETTING

Respond to our class survey about the places where we do our math homework. 1)At the kitchen table 2)In my room at home 3)At the library 4)At a friends house Draw a graph to display the results.

PROBLEM POSING WITH OBJECTS

Familiarity (and unfamiliarity) with objects in the story provide learning opportunities. Objects in stories can be compared, contrasted, sorted, and classified. (Got Van Hiele?) Objects in stories can be described or constructed with 2D and 3D shapes

MATHEMATICAL TASK WITH OBJECTS

To do the boys math homework, the Monster requires a very special type of pen.
Pens-R-Us sells 2 pens for $1.40

Which store has the better buy, Pens-R-Us or Pen-Mart? How do you know?
Which store would you go to to buy 24 pens? Show your thinking in words, numbers and pictures.

Pen-Mart sells 3 pens for $1.99

PROBLEM POSING WITH TIME FRAME

The TIME FRAME of a story:

Builds understanding of time measurements

Creates the necessity for standard units

Can bridge a students imagination and reality Allows for comparisons and contrasts

MATHEMATICAL TASK WITH TIME FRAME

Before the boys teacher realizes that the Monster is doing the math homework, the Monster has spent 1,725 minutes doing homework.

How long is this in hours? How long is this in days? How long is this in weeks?

SILVER AND CAI (2005) IDENTIFIED THREE CRITERIA

THAT ARE COMMONLY APPLICABLE TO MOST PROBLEM POSING TASKS:
1.Quantity - refers to the number of correct responses

generated from the problem posing task.

2.Originality - is also another feature of responses that

can possibly be used as a criterion to measure students creativity.

3.Complexity - refers to the cognitive demands of the

task. It can be categorized as low, moderate, or high.

Low complexity

Moderate complexity

High complexity

Recall or recognize a fact, term, or property Compute a sum, difference, product, or quotient Perform a specified procedure Solve a onestep word problem Retrieve information from a graph, table, or figure

Represent a situation mathematically in more than one way Provide a justification for steps in a solution process Interpret a visual representation Solve a multiple-step problem Extend a pattern Retrieve information from a graph, table, or figure and use it to solve a problem Interpret a simple argument

Describe how different representations can be used to solve the problem Perform a procedure having multiple steps and multiple decision points Generalize a pattern Solve a problem in more than one way Explain and justify a solution to a problem Describe, compare, and contrast solution methods Analyze the assumptions made in solution Provide a mathematical justification

Task objective: From the information below, construct mathematical problems, and solve them, to demonstrate your competency in using the basic rules for manipulating inequalities to simplify and solve simultaneous inequalities or inequalities involving linear, quadratic or modulus functions.

A gardener is planting a new orchard. The young trees are arranged in the rectangular plot, which has its longer side measuring 100m.

SAMPLE 1 OF PROBLEMS SHOWING LOW

MATHEMATICAL COMPLEXITY

If a fence around the orchard measures more than 330m, and the area of the orchard is not more than 7000m2, find the range of values of the shorter side.

SAMPLE 2 OF PROBLEMS SHOWING MODERATE

MATHEMATICAL COMPLEXITY

The gardener decides to divide the plot of land into three sections for growing three different types of plants. It is given that section C is representative of a quadrant and the area of section C is bigger than that of section A. The various sections require different types of soils of different prices. If the gardener has a budget of $400 for buying soil for the orchard, what is the maximum value of x?

SAMPLE 3 OF PROBLEMS SHOWING HIGH

MATHEMATICAL COMPLEXITY

It is given that the width of the orchard is 50m. Starting from point B, a worker P walked along the edge in a clockwise direction and back to B at a speed of 2m/s. Another worker, Q, started from point A and walked along the edge in the clockwise direction and back to point A at a speed of 1 m/s. What is largest possible area of triangle BPQ?

EXAMPLE PROBLEM
Ann has 34 marbles, Billy has 27 marbles, and Chris has 23 marbles. Write and solve as many problems as you can that uses this information

STUDENTS ARE ABLE TO POSE PROBLEMS SUCH AS THE FOLLOWING:

How many marbles do they have altogether? How many more marbles does Billy have than Chris? How many more marbles would they need to have together as many marbles as Sammy, who has 103? Can Ann give marbles to Billy and Chris so that they all have the same number? If so, how can this be done? Suppose Billy gives some marbles to Chris. How many marbles should he give Chris in order for them to have the same number of marbles? Suppose Ann gives some marbles to Chris. How many marbles should she give Chris in order for them to have the same number of marbles?

MATHEMATICS CONTENT: LINEAR EQUATION WITH

ONE UNKNOWN

Situation: A factory is planning to make a billboard. A master worker and his apprentice are employed to do the job. It will take 4 days by the master worker alone to complete the job, but it takes 6 days for the apprentice alone to complete the job.
Students Task: Please create problems based on the situation. Students may add conditions for problems they create.

Problem 1. How many days will it take the two workers to complete the job together? Problem 2. If the master joins the work after the apprentice has worked for 1 day, how many additional days will it take the master and the apprentice to complete the job together?

Problem 3. After the master has worked for 2 days, the apprentice joins the master to complete the job. How many days in total will the master have to work to complete the job?

Problem 4. If the master has to leave for other business after the two workers have worked together on the job for 1 day, how many additional days will it take the apprentice to complete the remaining part of the job? Problem 5. If the apprentice has to leave for other business after the two workers have worked together for 1 day, how many additional days will it take the master to complete the remaining part of the job?

Problems 6. The master and the apprentice are paid 4500Pesos after they completed the job. How much should the master and the apprentice each receive if each workers payment is determined by the proportion of the job the worker completed? Problem 7. The apprentice started the work by himself for 1 day, and then the master joined the effort, and they completed the remaining part of the job together. Finally, they received 4900 Pesos in total for completing the job. How much should the master and the apprentice each receive if each workers payment is determined by the proportion of the job the worker completed?

Problem 8. The master started the work by himself for 1 day, and then the apprentice joined the effort, and they completed the remaining part of the job together. Finally, they received 4500 Pesos in total for completing the job. How much should the master and the apprentice each receive if each workers payment is determined by the proportion of the job the worker completed?

THE END
(Merry Joy Ordinario BSED 4B)