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Polya's Four-Step Problem-Solving Process

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Lesson Transcript

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Maria Airth

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Expert Contributor

Kathryn Boddie

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Problem solving can be a problem. Any problem is solved easier with an action plan. Polya's 4-Step
Problem-Solving Process is discussed in this lesson to help students develop an action plan for
addressing problems.

Polya's 4-Step Process

George Polya was a mathematician in the 1940s. He devised a systematic process for solving problems
that is now referred to by his name: the Polya 4-Step Problem-Solving Process.

In this lesson, we will discuss each step of the Polya process while working through the solution to a
problem. At the end of the lesson, you will have the opportunity to try more examples before taking your
quiz.

Understanding the Problem

So, to start, let's think about a party. Sally was having a party. She invited 20 women and 15 men. She
made 1 dozen blue cupcakes and 3 dozen red cupcakes. At the end of the party there were only 5
cupcakes left. How many cupcakes were eaten?

The first step of Polya's Process is to Understand the Problem. Some ways to tell if you really understand
what is being asked is to:

State the problem in your own words.

Pinpoint exactly what is being asked.

Identify the unknowns.

Figure out what the problem tells you is important.

Identify any information that is irrelevant to the problem.

In our example, we can understand the problem by realizing that we don't need the information about
the gender of the guests or the color of the cupcakes - that is irrelevant. All we really need to know is
that we are being asked, 'How many cupcakes are left of the total that were made?' So, we understand
the problem.

Devise a Plan

Now that we understand the problem, we have to Devise a Plan to solve the problem. We could:

Look for a pattern.

Review similar problems.

Make a table, diagram or chart.

Write an equation.

Use guessing and checking.

Work backwards.

Identify a sub-goal.

In our example, we need a sub-goal of figuring out the actual total number of cupcakes made before we
can determine how many were left over.

We could write an equation to show what is unknown and how to find the solution:

(1 dozen + 3 dozen) - 5 = number eaten

Carry Out the Plan

The third step in the process is the next logical step: Carry Out the Plan. When you carry out the plan,
you should keep a record of your steps as you implement your strategy from step 2.
Our plan involved the sub-goal of finding out how many cupcakes were made total. After that, we
needed to know how many were eaten if only 5 remained after the party. To find out, we wrote an
equation that would resolve the sub-goal while working toward the main goal.

So, (1 dozen + 3 dozen) - 5 = number eaten. Obviously, we would need the prior knowledge that 1 dozen
equals 12.

1 x 12 = 12, and 3 x 12 = 36, so what we really have is (12 + 36) - 5 = number eaten.

12 + 36 = 48 and 48 - 5 = 43

That means that the number of cupcakes eaten is 43.

Look Back

The final step in the process is very important, but many students skip it, feeling like they have an answer
so they can move on now. The final step is to Look Back, which really means to check your work.

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Additional Activities

Additional Example of Using Polya's Four-Step Problem-Solving Process

In the following example, use Polya's Four-Step Problem-Solving Process as outlined in the video lesson.
Be sure to execute each step of the process and to state what that step involves.

Example

Farmer Brown has many animals on his farm. He has 72 chickens, which make up 60% of his total
animals, and the rest of his animals are sheep. How many legs in total do his animals have?
Solution

1) Step One of Polya's Process is to understand the problem. We are trying to count how many legs the
animals have in total. The animals are chickens (which have 2 legs each) and sheep (which have 4 legs
each).

2) Step Two of Polya's Process is to devise a plan. We will work with an equation. An example of an
equation to use to solve the problem is (72 chickens * 2 legs) + (number of sheep * 4 legs) = total legs.
However, we do not know the number of sheep. We know that 60% of the total number of animals is
equal to 72, so if n is the total number of animals, we have 0.60n = 72 so the total number of animals is
72/0.6 = 120. Then the number of sheep is the remaining amount of animals. A revised equation to use
to solve the problem is (72 chickens * 2 legs) + ((120-72) sheep * 4 legs) = total legs.

3) Step Three is to carry out the plan. We will solve our equation. 120 - 72 = 48 sheep, and so we have
(72 * 2) + (48 * 4) = total legs. 72 * 2 = 144 and 48 * 4 = 192, so the total number of legs is 144+192 =
336 legs.

4) Step Four is to look back. Does this answer make sense? There should be more legs than animals and
the number should be an even number (the animals each have an even number of legs) and 336 fits this.
We can check that 0.6(120) = 72 chickens and that 0.4(120) = 48 to make sure the number of animals is
correct. Our answer checks out.

Discussion

How can Polya's Four-Step Problem-Solving Process help you solve problems?

Guide to Discussion

This is a pretty open-ended question - something that may help guide students on their discussion is to
talk about word problems in math class. For many students, the hardest part of word problems is finding
out what is even being asked and translating it into an equation - Polya's process helps with these things.

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