Guessing and checking

Problem: Ling has $6.00 in dimes, nickels, and quarters in her bank. She has double
the number of dimes than nickels. The number of quarters is one-forth the number of
dimes. How many of each does she have in her bank?

1. Understand the problem

 Teacher requires students to reread the problem and find important information.
 Students should know that the total is $6.00. The number of dime is double than
nickel. The number of quarters is one-forth the number of dimes.
 We need to find how many of each she has.

2. Devise a plan
 Teacher helps students to create a table to record all their guess.
 Students is allowed to make their own initial guess. Teacher remind them to
guess reasonable and suitable with the question.
 Students calculate their solution and consider if it is correct or not.
 Keep guessing until find the correct answer.

3. Solve the problem

 Teacher lets students guess and find their answer for this question.
 Teacher help student to decide the second guess based on students’ first one. For
the first guessing, we see that the total is much lower the the given total. then in
the second guess, we will guess a higher number.
 If the second guess is not correct, teacher lets students continue guessing based
on the second one. Since the second guesing has the total higher than the given
total, we will choose a number lie on the interval between two before guesses.
Guess 1 2 3
Nickels 10 20 16
Dimes 20 40 32
Quarters 5 10 8
Total $3.75 $7.50 $6.00
Therefore, the answer is 16 nickels, 32 dimes, 8 quarters.
4. Examine
 Check whether the question is answered: We find the number of nickels is 16,
dimes is 32, quarters is 8. Then we have answered the question.
 Check whether we do math correctly:
16.5 + 32.10 +8.25 = 600

Creating an organized list

Problem: Sara is buying new cellphone. The model that she likes come on either
black, red or pink. With the extrasensory of the phone, she can get either a car
charger or a designer case with no extra money. How many combination are avaiable
for Sara?

1. Understand the poblem

 Teacher requires students to reread the problem and find the keyword for the
answer.
 Students should know there are 3 color: black, red, pink; and 2 extras: car charger
or designer case and these are free no matter what color she choose.
 We need to find how many combinations that are avaiable.

2. Divise a plan
 We try to figure out the number of combination and we have different options:
the color and the extrasensoris. There are not so many options, then we able to
create a list of options and then count of different choices.
 Teacher helps student to create combinations by their own to list the possible
solutions.

3. Solve the problem

Colors Extras
Black - Car charger
Black - Designer case
Red - Car charger
Red - Designer case
Pink - Car charger
 Pink - Designer case
Therefore, there are 6 combinations she can choose from.

4. Examine
 We need to check whether we answer the question: We find that Sara has 6
combinations that she can choose from, the question is answered.
 For each color, she has 2 options, and she has 3 colors to choose from. So that
makes sense that we get 6 combinations.