In case you are trying the MARS MAP Classroom Challenges for the first time, it is recommended that you read the Brief Guide for teachers and administrators before you get started.
Before the lesson, students attempt the problem individually. You then review their work and create questions for students to answer in order to improve their solutions.
During the lesson, students work collaboratively in small groups to produce an improved solution to the same problem.
Working in the same small groups, students comment on and evaluate some solutions produced by students in another class.
In a whole-class discussion, students explain and compare the alternative solution strategies they have seen and used.
Finally, students review the work they did on their individual solutions and write about what they learned.
To help you assess how well students are able to use geometric properties to solve problems.
To help you identify and help students who have the difficulties solving problems by determining the lengths of the sides in right triangles.
To help you identify and help students who have the difficulties finding the measurements of shapes by decomposing complex shapes into simpler ones.
To help students to recognize that there may be different approaches to geometrical problems, and to understand the relative strengths and weaknesses of those approaches.