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 task individually. You then review their work and formulate questions for students to answer in order for them to improve their work.
At the start of the lesson, students work individually to answer your questions.
Next, they work collaboratively, in small groups, to produce a better collective solution than those they produced individually. Throughout their work, they justify and explain their decisions to peers.
In the same small groups, students critique examples of other students' work.
In a whole-class discussion, students explain and compare the alternative approaches they have seen and used.
Finally, students work alone again to improve their individual solutions.
To help you assess how well students are able to identify linear and quadratic relationships in a realistic context: the number of tiles of different types that are needed for a range of square tabletops.
To identify and help students who have difficulties with choosing an appropriate, systematic way to collect and organize data.
To identify and help students who have difficulties with examining the data and looking for patterns; finding invariance and covariance in the numbers of different types of tile.
To identify and help students who have difficulties with generalizing using numerical, geometrical or algebraic structure.
To identify and help students who have difficulties with describing and explaining findings clearly and effectively.