Maths and Problem-Solving Skills

To develop a basic understanding of maths children need to learn how to solve even the most difficult maths problems. These difficult maths problems are typically word problems. Teaching children how to solve word problems in maths is critical if they are to develop a full understanding of maths.

Children can typically solve a maths problem presented in numbers and equations. However, when the same maths problem is written in a paragraph or sentence format, many children have difficulty sorting the important information from the distracting information. It is not the fact they cannot solve the maths problem in most cases, it is simply they do not know a plan or strategy for solving the problem.

Strategies for Maths Problem Solving

The key to solving maths word problems is to have a plan or strategy, which works in any maths word problem-solving situation. For children having problems with maths word problems, the following 12 tips are provided to help children become good problem solvers.

1. Read the problem carefully looking for clues and important information. Write down the clues, underline them, or highlight the clues.
2. If necessary, rewrite the problem to help find these clues.
3. Look for clues to determine which maths operation is needed to solve the problem, for example, addition, subtraction, etc. Look for key words like sum, difference, product, perimeter, area, etc. They lead to the operation needed to solve the problem.
4. Look for what is needed to solve the problem, for example: how many are left, the total will be, everyone gets red, everyone gets one of each, etc.
5. Use variable symbols, such as “X” for missing information.
6. Eliminate all non-essential information by drawing a line through distracting information.
7. Draw sketches, drawings, and models to see the problem.
8. Is the word problem similar to previous work, if so, how was it solved?
9. Develop a plan based on the information determined to be important for solving the problem.
10. Carry out the plan using the maths operations which were determined would find the answer.
11. Does the answer seem reasonable, if it does then it is probably ok – if not then check the work.
12. Work the problem in reverse or backward, starting with the answer to see if you wind up with your original problem.

Problem Solving in Maths is Personal

The ability to solve problems is the foundation of mathematics. For a student in any year level in school, the road to understanding maths is through the problem-solving gateway. To develop the ability to solve problems, children need to make a personal connection as they visualise, touch, and see the problem.

All parents can do problem-solving at home. For example:

• How many songs can be downloaded from iTunes for $7.75?
• How much to charge a neighbor for cutting their grass?
• How many cars do I need to wash to buy a new game, when charging $5.00 for each car wash?
• How many marbles will fit inside a jar? First, determine the volume in the jar. Next, determine a reasonable estimate of the number of marbles by using similar materials.
• When cooking, use fractions when baking.

Geometry Maths Problems

How about seeing what geometric shapes are in your home or outside the home? Geometry is everywhere in homes and nature, examples include:

• Traffic Signs – octagon, square, round, etc.
• Bicycles – using “Pi x d” to find the circumference or “Pi x r²” for the area of their bike’s wheels.
• Windows – square, circle, rectangle, etc.
• Walls, Floors, Ceilings – rectangle, right angles, perpendicular, parallel, etc.
• Trees and Bushes – oval, 2 dimensional, 3 dimensional, Round, Cone, etc.
• Swing Sets and other playground equipment – triangle, square, rectangle, etc.
• Pythagorean’s Theorem – how to determine a right angle of anything being constructed to ensure the corner is exactly 90 degrees.

There are so many more possibilities, just get your children to look at what they see.

Mrs Sue Zweck, Head of Teaching and Learning K-5