Imagine you’re looking at a picture of three prisoners. Your task is to figure out which one is the richest. The first prisoner can’t be rich because his food is partly rotten, suggesting he’s not well-liked or powerful. The second prisoner looks wealthy with his jewelry, but it’s fake. That leaves the third prisoner, who has a laptop and a phone hidden with him, making him the richest for sure!
Susie was on a game show and had to answer a tricky question to win $1,000: How many numbers are on a clock? It seems easy, but it’s not. The answer is 15. You can’t just count the numbers you see. Instead, you need to consider how numbers like 10, 11, and 12 are made up of smaller numbers. So, counting them in a special way gives you the answer.
A thief stole a $100 bill from Mrs. Buchanan’s shop, bought $70 worth of goods, and got $30 as change. How much did the store owner lose? It might seem complicated, but she lost $100 in total. She lost $70 in goods and $30 in change, which adds up to $100.
Maya needed to pass through a green door guarded by a gatekeeper. He gave her a riddle: only things with double letters in their names can pass through. For example, you can take a carton of eggs but not a box of donuts. The key is to look for double letters in the names of the items.
At the farmers market, Mark was asked a riddle: If a man had four eggs, a thief gave him three, and his rooster laid five, how many eggs does he have? The answer is three. Roosters don’t lay eggs, and the man didn’t have any eggs to start with, so only the three eggs from the thief count.
Four prisoners were lined up, each wearing a hat that was either black or white. They had to guess their hat color to avoid a life sentence. Prisoner C guessed correctly. He figured it out because prisoner D stayed silent, meaning prisoner C and B had different colored hats. Since B wore a white hat, C guessed his was black.
Betty, a high school senior, photoshopped an image for her photography class because she was busy. Her teacher and classmates immediately knew it was fake because the person in the picture had two heads, which is impossible in real life.
Three friends visited Antarctica, and one tried to smuggle a penguin in their backpack. By looking at the picture, you can see penguin feet sticking out of Helena’s backpack. She did more than just fishing on her trip!
During Bloomfield Town’s contest, bakers had to make desserts without sugar, using only natural sweeteners. The mayor disqualified one contestant without tasting the desserts because her cake was covered in powdered sugar, breaking the rules.
Imagine you’re one of the prisoners. Create a short skit with your classmates to act out the scenario of determining who the richest prisoner is. Use props to represent the items mentioned, like a fake laptop or jewelry, and discuss why each prisoner might or might not be the richest.
Draw a large clock face on a poster board. Work in groups to figure out how the numbers on a clock add up to 15. Use sticky notes to write down your reasoning and stick them on the clock face. Present your findings to the class.
Recreate the scenario of the thief and Mrs. Buchanan in a math game. Use play money to simulate the transaction and calculate the total loss. Discuss with your classmates how the math works and why the loss is $100.
Go on a scavenger hunt around the classroom or school to find items with double letters in their names. Make a list of these items and share them with the class. Discuss why some items can “pass through the green door” and others cannot.
Divide into teams and debate the egg riddle. One team argues why the answer is three eggs, while the other team presents alternative interpretations. Use logic and reasoning to support your arguments, and see which team can convince the class.
Prisoner – A person who is confined or kept in a place, often used metaphorically in critical thinking to describe being trapped in a particular mindset or problem. – In our math class, we learned how to think outside the box and not be a prisoner of conventional problem-solving methods.
Riddle – A question or statement intentionally phrased to require ingenuity in ascertaining its answer or meaning, often used to develop critical thinking skills. – Solving the riddle about the missing numbers helped us improve our logical reasoning skills.
Numbers – Symbols or words used to represent quantities and used in mathematics to perform calculations and solve problems. – Understanding how numbers work is essential for solving algebraic equations in math class.
Change – The process of becoming different, often used in mathematics to describe the difference between quantities or the transformation of shapes. – We calculated the change in temperature over the week using a line graph.
Letters – Symbols used to represent variables or constants in mathematical expressions and equations. – In algebra, letters like x and y are used to represent unknown values that we need to solve for.
Eggs – Objects often used in math problems to illustrate concepts like division, multiplication, or probability. – If you have 12 eggs and you want to divide them equally among 4 friends, how many eggs does each friend get?
Color – A property of objects that can be used in math to categorize, differentiate, or visualize data. – We used different colors to highlight each section of the pie chart in our math project.
Guess – An estimate or conclusion reached without complete information, often used in critical thinking to make predictions or hypotheses. – Before solving the equation, we made a guess about what the solution might be.
Contest – A competition where participants strive to win by solving problems or demonstrating skills, often used in math to encourage critical thinking and problem-solving. – Our school held a math contest to see who could solve the most challenging problems the fastest.
Sweeteners – Substances used to add sweetness, often used metaphorically in critical thinking to describe incentives or factors that make a solution more appealing. – The teacher added some sweeteners to the math challenge by offering extra credit to those who participated.
