I.

Drawing a Diagram
Lesson: Solve Mathematics problem by using Equation or System of Equations (Grade 9)
Problem: A rectangular garden has the length being 8m greater than the width. Enlarge the
garden by increasing the width by 4m. The area is now enlarged by 104m2. Find the area of the
original garden.
Solution
Step 1: Understanding the Problem
- Allow the students to read the problem carefully.
- Students should underline the important information in the problem: length is 8m greater
than width, increase width by 4m, area increased by 104m2.
- Students should ask themselves: “What is the problem asking me to do?”, which can help
students exactly locate the questions. In particular, the problem asks students to find the
area of original garden.
- They may dissect the problem sentence by sentence (4 sentences altogether) and focus on
one sentence at a time.
- Discuss with others and restate the problem with their own words. For example, “the area
of the original garden” is the area of the garden before being enlarged.
Step 2: Devising a Plan
- Students may think about a way to solve the problem: Set the width/length for one variale
(suppose x). Represent the other side by x. From the assumption, one can construct an
equation with one variable x, and then solve the problem with respect to x and find the
area of original garden.
- Students may discuss with others and find out another way to solve this problem: Let the
length and width of the original garden by x and y, respectively. After that, one can build a
system of equations with two variables x and y, and then solve the system to figure out the
area of original garden by using the rectangular area formula.
- Students can choose one strategy that makes sense to them or is easy to comprehend.
Step 3: Carrying out the Plan
 - Reread the problem to decide the type of diagram (picture to be more specific) is best
show the information in the problem. Then draw the diagram according to the scenario in
the problem.
- After drawing the diagram, students can realize that the area which is enlarged is in yellow
color, and the area they need to find is in blue color.
- Way 1: Let x be the length of the garden, then the width of the garden is x – 8.
The original area is x(x – 8).
The width being enlarged is x – 8 + 4 = x – 4.
The new area is x(x – 4).
From the assumption, we have: x(x – 4) – x(x – 8) = 104.
Solve for x, we get x = 26.
Then the area of original garden is 26(26 – 8) = 468 m 2.
- Way 2: Let x and y be the length and the width of the garden, respectively.
The original area is x.y
The width being enlarged is y + 4.
The new area is x(y + 4).
From the assumption, we get the system of equations:
x − y=8
{ x ( y +4 )−xy =104
Solve for x and y, we obtain x = 26 and y = 18.
So the area of original garden is 26.18 = 468 m2.
Step 4: Looking Back
- Students must reread the problem and check the solution to see if it meets the conditions
stated in the problem.
- Students must ask themselves questions such as, “Does my solution make sense?”
- From the above ways, students can see that Way 1 is simpler to compute, but Way 2 is
more natural to think of. Moreover, since they will meet a lot of systems of equations in
the curriculum, they should be more familiar with this way.
- Students should illustrate or write down their thinking processes, estimations, and
approaches. This will help them visualize the steps they took to solve the problem and
make generalizations about their work. For example, students can summarize the solution
step-by-step: Appropriately set the length/width or both as one or two variables – Create
the equation or system of equations based on the assumption – Solve the equation or
system of equations – Arrive at a conclusion.
 II. Acting It Out or Using Concrete Materials
Lesson: Application of Exponential function (Grade 12)
Problem: Michael deposits 27 million dong in the bank in the form of compound interest with a
trimester maturity and an interest rate of 1.85% per quarter. What is the fastest time for Michael
to get at least 36 million dong including principal and interest?
A. 19 trimesters B. 15 trimesters C. 4 years D. 5 years
Solution
Step 1: Understanding the Problem
- Allow the students to read the problem carefully.
- Students should ask themselves: “What information is important for solving the
problem?”, which can remind them to underline the key ideas in the problem: 27 million
dong, compound interest, trimester maturity, 1.85% per quarter, fastest time, 36 million
dong.
- Students should ask themselves: “What is the problem asking me to do?”, which can help
students exactly locate the questions. In particular, the problem asks students to find the
fastest time for Michael to get at least a certain amount of money including principal and
interest.
- Students may have difficulty reading or understanding the problem. For example, teachers
can give an explanation of “compound interest”, which is interest calculated on the initial
principal, which also includes all of the accumulated interest of previous periods of a
deposit or loan; or maybe they could not get the meaning of “trimester”, which is the same
as “a quarter”.
Step 2: Devising a Plan
- Before solving the problem, students need to generalize it to find the general formula.
General problem: “A person deposit a dong in the bank with an interest of r monthly. After
n months, how much money (including principal and interest) does this person get?”
- The number we need to obtain in our problem is n.
- Since this is a multiple choice question, students can use the Trial and Error Method, trying
out each answer and seeing if that answer satisfies the assumption from the problem. But
this is not a smart way.
Step 3: Carrying out the Plan
- Solution to the General problem:
Let Tk be the amount of money (including principal and interest) he gets after k months.
Then T1 = a + ar = a(1 + r)
T2 = a(1 + r) + a(1 + r)r = a(1 + r)2
…
Tk = a(1 + r)n-1 + a(1 + r)n-1r = a(1 + r)n
 Hence, the money (including principal and interest) this person gets after n months is
Tn = a(1 + r)n
- Applying the above formula, we have to compute the smallest n such that:
27 ( 1+0.0185 )n >36
- Solving for n, we get n = 16 trimesters, which means 4 years. So the correct answer is C.
- In this problem, students may make a mistake of choosing the formula. In particular, they
might apply the simple interest formula, which is Tn = a(1 + nr) to find n. The consequence
is that it leads to n = 19 (answer A), which is a wrong answer.
Or sometimes they could not get any of the four answers above because of wrong formula
or computation, then they should review their work to make sure they have not made
any errors in their calculations.

Step 4: Looking Back

- Students must reread the problem and check the solution to see if it meets the conditions
stated in the problem or to remove the distracting choices.
- Students should illustrate or write down their thinking processes, estimations, and
approaches. This will help them visualize the steps they took to solve the problem and
make generalizations about their work. For example, students can make a list of steps:
State the general problem – Find the general solution – Apply to the problem – Find the
desired solution.
- From the above steps, students can find out more formulas in this type of interest rate
problems. For example, the formula to find how much money obtained after some time
when depositing the same amount of money monthly at a fixed time is:
A
Sn =
r
[ ( 1+ r )n−1 ] (1+r )
 III. Creating a Table
Lesson: Statistics (Grade 10)
Problem: Given a table of the Mathematics mid-term marks of the class 10A.

10 7 6 8 9 9 10 8 9 10 9 7 8
6 9 7 8 6 9 10 10 8 9 8 7
6 5 9 8 7 6 9 10 8 7 8 9
10 6 5
Find the mean, mode, and median.
Solution
Step 1: Understanding the Problem
- Allow the students to read the problem carefully.
- Students should ask themselves: “What is the problem asking me to do?”, which can help
students exactly locate the questions.
In particular, they need to find three numbers “mean”, “mode”, and “median”.
- Allow the students to have discussions or to compare the results with others, restating the
problem in their own words if necessary. For example, finding the mean is to find the
average.
Step 2: Devising a Plan
- Firstly, they need to remind themselves about the definition “mean”, “mode”, and
“median” and how to find them.
 The "mean" is the "average" they are used to, where they add up all the
numbers and then divide by the number of values.
 The "median" is the "middle" value in the list of numbers. To find the median,
their numbers have to be listed in numerical order from smallest to largest, so
they may have to rewrite their list before they can find the median.
 The "mode" is the value that occurs most often. If no number in the list is
repeated, then there is no mode for the list.
- Students can find these numbers quite “manually”. In order to find the mean, they can
enter the data one-by-one into the calculator and count the number of values. Or to look
for the median, students might rewrite the list in order and find the “middle” value. About
the mode, they should count the occurrences of values in the list.
These ways are correct, but very time-consuming and easy to make mistake due to
counting or calculation errors, especially for the problems with numerous values. To
reduce the risk of making mistakes, the safer way is creating a table.
Step 3: Carrying out the Plan
 - Normally, students find the sum of all values, which is 299, and then count the number of
299
values, which is 37. So the mean is 37 =8.081.
Or they can rewrite the list as:
5 6 6 6 6 6 7 7 7 7 7 7 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 10 10 10 10 10 10
to find out the median = 8.
- A more intelligent way is to create the frequency table as follows:
Mark Frequency
5 1
6 5
7 6
8 9
9 10
10 6
From this table, we can easily recognise that the mode is 9 since it occurs most often (10
times).
By simple summing of frequency, we can see the total number of values is 37, and the total
mark can be computed by:
5.1+6.5+7.6+ 8.9+ 9.10+10.6=299
And hence the mean is 8.081.
Because there are 37 numbers, the median should be in the 19th place in the ordered
number list. From the table also, we can find the 19th number is 8.
Step 4: Looking Back
- Students must reread the problem and check the solution to see if it meets the conditions
stated in the problem and answers the question adequately (find all three numbers).
- Allow students the opportunity to discuss with others and orally demonstrate or explain
how they reached their solutions.
- Students should consider whether it is possible for them to have solved the problem in a
simpler way. If they solved the problem in a “manual” way, then they should consult the
way using table.
- Students should illustrate or write down their thinking processes, estimations, and
approaches. This will help them visualize the steps they took to solve the problem and
make generalizations about their work. For example in this problem, they can restate the
steps: Create a table with two variables (Marks – Frequency) – Count the number of
occurrences of values – Fill in the table – Compute three numbers.
 IV. Looking for a Pattern
Lesson: Calculate the sum of number series (Grade 6)
Problem: Gong Yoo wants to buy a gift for his mother on March 8, 2020. He decided to feed the
piggy bank 2 (South Korean) won, starting from February 1 this year. The next three days, he put
respectively 6, 12, and 20 won in the pig. Until the Holiday March 8, will Gong Yoo have enough
money to buy his mother the present? Given that present that Gong Yoo plans to buy costs about
18000 won.
Solution
Step 1: Understanding the Problem
- Allow the students to read the problem carefully.
- Students should underline the important information in the problem: from February 1,
until the Holiday March 8, have enough money, 18000 won; and the number series: 2, 6,
12, 20,…
- Students should ask themselves: “What is the problem asking me to do?”, which can help
students exactly locate the questions. In particular, the problem asks students to find
whether Gong Yoo have enough money to buy his mother the present or not.
- They may dissect the problem sentence by sentence (5 sentences altogether) and focus on
one sentence at a time, the first sentence may not as necessary as the others.
- Discuss with others and restate the problem with their own words. For example, finding
out whether “Gong Yoo have enough money to buy his mother the present” or not means
that will he get at least 18000 won after saving the money.
Step 2: Devising a Plan
- The first step is that students have to find the pattern of the number series: 2, 6, 12, 20,…
They can see quite easily that:
2 = 1.2
6 = 2.3
12 = 3.4
20 = 4.5
…
- After realizing the rule of the series, they need to look for a way to calculate the sum of
this series, which leads to the general problem:
General problem: Compute the sum:
A=1.2+ 2.3+3.4+ …+n(n+ 1)
There are several ways to find A. One can think of multiplying 3 both sides to get 3A.
Advanced students may use the formulas of the sums 1+2+…+ n and 12 +22+ …+n2 to
calculate A.
Students can choose one strategy that makes sense to them or is easy to comprehend.
 - In the next move, students may ask themselves “How many days are there from the point
Gong Yoo started saving money to the Holiday”, which answers to the question n=?
- Compare the sum A with the determined number n and 18000 to get the conclusion.
Step 3: Carrying out the Plan
- Solution to the General problem:
Way 1: We have:
3 A=1.2 .3+2.3 .3+3.4 .3+ …+n ( n+1 ) .3
3 A=1.2 . ( 3−0 )+ 2.3 . ( 4−1 )+ 3.4 . ( 5−2 ) +…+n ( n+ 1 ) .[( n+2)−( n−1 ) ]
3 A=1.2 .3−1.2.0+2.3 .4−1.2 .3+ 3.4 .5−2.3 .4 +…+n ( n+1 ) ( n+2 ) −n(n+1)(n−1)
3 A=n(n+1)(n+2)
n (n+1)(n+2)
A=
3
Way 2: We have:
A=1. ( 1+1 ) +2. ( 1+ 2 )+ 3. ( 1+3 ) + …+ n ( 1+ n )
A=( 1+ 2+ 3+…+n )+(12 +22+ 32 +…+n 2)
n (n+1) n(n+ 1)(2 n+1) n(n+1)(n+2)
A= + =
2 6 3
- From February, 1 to March, 3 there are 29 + 8 = 37 (days). So, n = 37.
- We can draw a table for simply visualizing:

Day 1 2 3 4 5 … 37
Amount saved 2 6 12 20 30 1406
Total 2 8 20 40 70 ?
- Applying the above formula, we have the total amount of money will be saved after 37
days is:
n( n+1)( n+2) 37.38 .39
A37= = =18278>18000
3 3
In conclusion, Gong Yoo will have enough money to buy his mother a present on the
Holiday.
Step 4: Looking Back
- Students must reread the problem and check the solution to see if it meets the conditions
stated in the problem.
- Students must ask themselves questions such as, “Is my solution logical and reasonable?”
- Students should consider whether it is possible for them to have solved the problem in a
simpler way. Both ways stated above are good, but the second way requires the student to
remember the other formulas to obtain the final result, so the first way seems more
convenient.
- Students should illustrate or write down their thinking processes, estimations, and
approaches. This will help them visualize the steps they took to solve the problem and
make generalizations about their work. For example in this question, they can restate the
 steps: Generalize the problem – Solve the general problem – Substitute variable in the
formula and compute – Compare with the number from the assumption to conclude the
answer.
V. Guessing and Checking
Lesson: Solve Mathematics problem by using System of Equations (Grade 9)
Problem: John joined a Math competition. There were 100 questions to be answered. 5 marks
were awarded for every correct answer and 2 marks were deducted for every wrong answer. If
John scored a total of 409 marks, how many answers did he get correct?
Solution
Step 1: Understanding the Problem
- Allow the students to read the problem carefully.
- Students should note and underline the important facts in the problem: 100 questions, 5
marks awarded, 2 marks deducted, 409 marks.
- Students should ask themselves: “What is the problem asking me to do?”, which can help
students determine the exact problem that needs to be solved. In particular, the problem
asks students to find the number of correct answers.
- They may dissect the problem sentence by sentence (4 sentences altogether) and focus on
one sentence at a time. The first sentence may not as necessary as the others.
Step 2: Devising a Plan
- Help students create a table in which to record their guesses. Tell them that a table is a
good way to keep their guesses organized.
To start drawing the table, we will need to think about what we know from the question
and organize them into columns.
 Since we know that we have some number of correct answers and some number of
incorrect answers, let’s put them into two columns.

No. of CORRECT answers No. of INCORRECT answers

 Next, we also know the total mark. Let’s have another column labelled “total mark”.

No. of CORRECT answers No. of INCORRECT answers Total mark

Ask the students: “Is that all?”
Not really.
We will need the table to make sense. This refers to understanding the relationship
between the different columns and filling in the gaps. Here, we will need to show how we
are able to derive the total mark that is stated in the last column.
 We know that we can obtain the total mark by subtracting the marks deducted from
the marks awarded, so we will add those columns too.
 No. of CORRECT No. of INCORRECT
Marks awarded Marks deducted Total mark
answers answers

 Including a “Check” column at the end of the table to help us keep track of our
progress.
No. of No. of
CORRECT Marks awarded INCORRECT Marks deducted Total mark Check
answers answers

We would usually put the answer that we are guessing in the first column of the table. In
this case, we are guessing the number of correct answers which is already in the first
column, so all is good. Otherwise, we will simply move the columns around and make sure
they form a logical flow of thought from left to right.
- All students should then make an initial guess. Remind them that their guesses should be
reasonable and based on the important information from the problem.
Often students are told that guessing is not a good strategy. What students need to
understand is that wild and random guessing is not a good strategy. Making an educated
guess about a solution to a problem is a valuable strategy and is a good tool to use even
outside of mathematics.
For example in this problem, John could not get all answers correct, since if so, he would
have marked 500, which is much greater than 409. Therefore, the students should make a
guess about the number of correct answers he got being around 90.
- Students should check their guess against the conditions of the problem, evaluate the
results, and make another guess according to the results of the previous guess. This
process is repeated until the correct solution is found.
Step 3: Carrying out the Plan
- Students should record the solution to the first guess. Have students evaluate the answer.
They should ask themselves if their answer correctly solves the problem.
For example, their first guess of the number of correct answers is 90.
No. of No. of
CORRECT Marks awarded INCORRECT Marks deducted Total mark Check
answers answers
90 450 10 20 430 

- How good our first guess is depends on how close it is to our target.
Now, to make a good second guess, we will compare the total mark that we obtain and see
how far it is from the number that is given in the question.
In this case, our calculations showed us that our guess resulted in 430 marks, but we only
need 409 marks. That’s a little bit more than what we need. This means that our first guess
is a little too high.
 - Since we know that we need to reduce total mark, the question we will need to think now
is whether we should increase or decrease the number of correct answers?
Of course we need to decrease. Let’s make a second guess being 89.
No. of No. of
CORRECT Marks awarded INCORRECT Marks deducted Total mark Check
answers answers
90 450 10 20 430 
89 445 11 22 423 

- Repeat this process until we meet the conditions.

No. of No. of
CORRECT Marks awarded INCORRECT Marks deducted Total mark Check
answers answers
90 450 10 20 430 
89 445 11 22 423 
88 440 12 24 416 
87 435 13 26 409 
- The procedure stops here where we obtain the same total mark as the problem.
In conclusion, John got 87 correct answers.
Step 4: Looking Back
- Students must reread the problem and check the solution to see if it meets the conditions
stated in the problem.
- Students must ask themselves questions such as, “Does my table make sense?”
- Students should illustrate or write down their thinking processes, estimations, and
approaches. This will help them visualize the steps they took to solve the problem and
make generalizations about their work. For example, students can summarize the solution
step-by-step: Create a table with suitable variables (No. of CORRECT/INCORRECT answers –
Marks awarded/deducted – Total mark – Check) – Make an initial guess – Decide the
values of second, third,… guess (higher or lower) – Repeat the process until we get the
correct solution.
- Students can solve this problem in a more formal way using system of equations:
Let x and y be the number of correct and incorrect answers, respectively. To solve for the
number of correct answers means to solve for x, which also means to solve the system:

{5 xx+−2y=100
y =409
 VI. Creating an Organized List
Lesson: Probability of an Event (Grade 11)
Problem: A box contains four red marbles and three blue marbles. Take two marbles from this
box in turn. Find the probability that the second marble taken is blue.
Solution
Step 1: Understanding the Problem
- Allow the students to read the problem carefully.
- Students should ask themselves: “What information is important for solving the
problem?”, which can remind them to underline the key ideas in the problem: four red
marbles, three blue marbles, take two marbles, in turn.
- Students should ask themselves: “What is the problem asking me to do?”, which can help
students exactly locate the questions. In particular, the problem asks students to find the
probability that the second marble taken is blue.
- Students may have difficulty reading or understanding the problem. For example, teachers
can give an explanation of “in turn”, which is one after the other, or in order. You take the
first marble, then see the color, and then take the second marble, and obesrve the color.
Step 2: Devising a Plan
- Students can draw the marbles in objects and name them for simply visualizing.

R1 R2 R3 R4 B1 B2 B3
- Students should determine the event in the probability problem, which in this problem is
“the second marble taken is blue”.
From this realization, students can decide what information should be kept the same as
they work through the problem, which is the color of the second marble taken.
- After that, teachers can ask the students: “If the color of the second marble taken is fixed,
how many choices of color we can have in terms of the first marble?”
Answering to this question, students can find out the number of favorable outcomes with
respect to the above event.
- In order to find the probability of an event, students also need to look for the total number
of possible outcomes so that they can plug into the formula:
Number of favorable outcomes
Probability of an Event =
Total number of possible outcomes
Students can figure out the values of numerator as well as denominator by generating an
organized list.
Step 3: Carrying out the Plan
- Let A be the event “the second marble taken is blue”.
- Teachers can help students create combinations and work sequentially to list the possible
solutions to the problem. Firstly, to find |A| – the number of favorable outcomes,
students should consider two cases:
Case 1: The first marble taken is red, and the second one taken is blue.
Student can create a list of ways as follow:
R1B1 R2B1 R3B1 R4B1
R1B2 R2B2 R3B2 R4B2
R1B3 R2B3 R3B3 R4B3
Count the number of possible outcomes. There are 12 ways.
Case 2: The first marble taken is blue, and the second one taken is also blue.
We have the following ways:
B1B2 B1B3 B2B1 B2B3 B3B1 B3B2
There are 6 ways.
Therefore, we have
¿ A∨¿12+6=18
- In the next move, students need to find the total number of possible outcomes, answering
to the question: “How many ways we have for taking in turn two marbles from the box?”
In both cases above, we keep the condition “the second marble taken is blue”. Now we fix
the color of the second marble being red and continue listing the possible ways.
Case 3: The first marble taken is red, and the second one taken is also red.
The ways are listed as:
R1R2 R1R3 R1R4 R2R1 R2R3 R2R4
R3R1 R3R2 R3R4 R4R1 R4R2 R4R3
There are 12 ways.
Case 4: The first marble taken is blue, and the second one taken is red.
How many ways we have?
B1R1 B1R2 B1R3 B1R4
B2R1 B2R2 B2R3 B2R4
B3R1 B3R2 B3R3 B3R4
There are 12 ways.
Hence, the total number of possible outcomes is the sum of ways of the four cases.
|Ω|=18+12+12=42
- The final step is to compute the desired probability:
18 3
P ( A )=¿ A∨ ¿ = = ¿
|Ω| 42 7
Step 4: Looking Back
- Students must reread the problem and check the solution to see if it meets the conditions
stated in the problem.
- They need to look back at the list to make sure no information is missing or repeated. For
example in this problem, students can suppose that R1R2 is the same as R2R1, which is a
common mistake and results in wrong probability. Remember that we take the marbles in
turn, and the marbles are different to each other.
- Students should illustrate or write down their thinking processes, estimations, and
approaches. This will help them visualize the steps they took to solve the problem and
make generalizations about their work. For example, students can make a list of steps:
Determine the event A – Compute |A| (two cases: Red-Blue, Blue-Blue) – Compute |Ω|
(another two cases: Blue-Red, Red-Red) – Calculate P(A) – Check the answer.
- Creating an Organized List is an efficient way to check comprehensively the result and the
procedure during the work as well, especially for the problem containing not much data
and being not too complicated, so this strategy is significantly useful for and best used with
primary students. But for higher education, when students have to deal with problems
consisting of much more information, they have to use another tools to approach the
solution.
For example, in this problem, if the number of marbles are not 4 or 3 but 14 or 13 or even
more than that, listing all possible outcomes might be time-consuming and sometimes
‘impossible’. In such case, students can use multiplication rule to find out the answers
instead of creating a list of ways.
To be more specific, in Case 1: The first marble taken is red, and the second one taken is
blue, there are 4.3 = 12 (ways), and in Case 2: The first marble taken is blue, and the
second one taken is also blue, there are 3.2 = 6 (ways).
The total number of marbles is 7, so the number of ways taking two marbles in turn from
the box is 7.6 = 42 (ways).
Similar result is now obtained.
 VII. Working Backwards
Lesson: Solve Mathematics problem by using Equations (Grade 8)
Problem: A fleet of vehicles planned to carry 140 tons of cargo in a specified number of days.
Since each day the fleet conveyed five tons in excess, they completed the job earlier than the
prescribed time one day, and they have even carried 10 tons of cargo more. How many days
would it take the fleet to convey all the goods as planned?
Solution
Step 1: Understanding the Problem
- Allow the students to read the problem carefully.
- Students should ask themselves: “What is the problem asking me to do?”, which can help
students determine the exact problem that needs to be solved. In particular, they need to
find how many days it would take the fleet to convey all the goods as planned.
- Students should note and underline the important facts in the problem: 140 tons, each
day, five tons in excess, one day, 10 tons more, as planned.
- They may dissect the problem sentence by sentence (3 sentences altogether) and focus on
one sentence at a time. The second sentence should be divided into three smaller parts:
each day the fleet conveyed five tons in excess – they completed the job earlier than the
prescribed time one day – they have even carried 10 tons of cargo more.
- Allow the students to have discussions or to compare the results with others, restating the
problem in their own words if necessary. For example, finding “how many days would it
take the fleet to convey all the goods as planned” is to find out that how many days they
have planned to carry 140 tons of cargo.
Step 2: Devising a Plan
- Working backwards is a strategy to use for problems that contain linked information. In
this problem, the cargo conveyed as planned and the cargo carried in reality are
associated with each other.
- Students shoud identify the information has not been provided. Usually, the missing
information is at the beginning of the problem. For this one, the missing piece is the
number of days, which appears in the very first sentence.
- Solving problems using this strategy requires that the problem solver start at the end of
the problem and work methodically backwards until the missing information is found. For
more easily computation, one should set the absent information as a variable, assuming x.
- After determining the questioned information, students should follow the steps of the
problem backwards. To find x backwards is to deal with the details in the problem from
bottom to top in terms of x. Remind students that they may need to use the opposite
(inverse) operation.
Step 3: Carrying out the Plan
- Let x (days) be the amount of time that the fleet have planned to carry the cargo (x > 1) –
the missing information that needs to be found.
- Since there are two related information: the cargo conveyed as planned versus the cargo
carried in reality, students should cover both stages.
Stage 1: As planned.
The amount of cargo they should have conveyed is: 140 (tons).
140
Each day, they should have carried: x (tons).
Stage 2: In reality. Now we follow each information backwards.
“they have even carried 10 tons of cargo more”
 The amount of cargo they have conveyed is: 140 + 10 = 150 (tons)
the opposite operation is not needed here.

“they completed the job earlier than the prescribed time one day”
 The amount of time that the fleet have carried all the goods: x - 1 (days)
the opposite operation is not needed here.

150
Hence, each day, they have conveyed: x−1 (tons).

“each day the fleet conveyed five tons in excess”

 We get the equation:
150 140
− =5
x−1 x
the opposite operation is needed here.
- Solve for x, we get x=7 or x=−4 (does not meet the condition).
In conclusion, the fleet of vehicles have planned to carry all the goods in 7 days.
Step 4: Looking Back
- Students must reread the problem and check to see that the missing information in the
question matches the information the students ended with (the number of days).
- Allow students the opportunity to discuss with others and orally demonstrate or explain
how they reached their solutions.
- Students should check the solution by working forward through the steps of the problem.
We can restate the problem to check the details:
A fleet of vehicles planned to carry 140 tons of cargo in seven days (a week). Since each day
the fleet conveyed five tons in excess, they completed the job earlier than the prescribed
time one day, and they have even carried 10 tons of cargo more.
Checking:
  The fleet planned to carry 140 tons of cargo in seven days, so each day they planned
140
to convey 7 =20 tons of cargo.
 Since each day the fleet conveyed five tons in excess, in reality they carried 20 + 5 =
25 tons of cargo daily.
 So just in six days (earlier than the prescribed time one day), they have conveyed
25.6 = 150 tons of cargo (completed the job and even carried 10 tons of cargo more).
 The answer is correct.
- Students should illustrate or write down their thinking processes, estimations, and
approaches. This will help them visualize the steps they took to solve the problem and
make generalizations about their work. For example in this problem, they can restate the
steps: Set the absent information (number of days) as a variable (x) – Represent the
expressions needed in terms of x backwards in both stages (as planned + in reality) –
Create the Equation of varialbe x – Solve for x to get the answer – Check the solution by
working forward.
 VIII. Creating a Tree Diagram
Lesson: Counting Rule (Grade 11)
Problem: In a wedding reception, guests were seated around a circular table for six. Before the
dinner, the newlywed asked each guest to shake hands (once) with everyone on the table. How
many handshakes were made in each table?
Solution
Step 1: Understanding the Problem
- Allow the students to read the problem carefully.
- Students should underline the important information in the problem: a circular table for
six, shake hands (once) with everyone.
- Students should ask themselves: “What is the problem asking me to do?”, which can help
students exactly locate the questions. In particular, the problem asks students to find the
number of handshakes were made in each table.
- They may dissect the problem sentence by sentence (3 sentences altogether) and focus on
one sentence at a time.
Step 2: Devising a Plan
- Before solving the problem, students need to generalize it to find the general formula.
General problem: “In a wedding reception, guests were seated around a circular table for
n people. Before the dinner, the newlywed asked each guest to shake hands (once) with
everyone on the table. How many handshakes were made in each table?”
- There are quite many ways to solve the handshake problem. One of them is creating a tree
diagram. The other strategies such as “Looking for a Pattern” and “Guessing and
Checking” which can be integrated in the problem-solving process are represented in Step
3: Carrying out the Plan; and the strategies “Creating a Table” and “Drawing a Diagram”
that we have learnt last week will be revised in Step 4: Looking Back.
- In order to create a tree diagram in this problem, we will consider the roots of the trees
are every person in the table, and the branches are the people that this person (the root)
shakes hands with. Then we can count the total handshakes in each case and generalize
the formula.
Step 3: Carrying out the Plan
- Students should first decide what information should be kept the same as you work
through the problem. In this problem, the number of branches is the same in each tree, i.e,
the number of people that each person shakes hands with is fixed.
- Teachers can help students develop the combinations, working sequentially through the
problem to create the tree diagram.
- Consider some cases for the General problem:
 Case 1: n = 2  1 handshake

Case 2: n = 3  3 handshakes

Case 3: n = 4  6 handshakes

Case 4: n = 5  10 handshakes

- By now, we can use the “Looking for a Pattern” strategy to find out the general formula.
Consider the number series: 1, 3, 6, 10,…
Students can recognize the rule of the series:
2.1
1=
2
3.2
3=
2
4.3
6=
2
5.4
10=
2
…
- From the above observation, students can employ the “Guessing and Checking” strategy
to guess the general formula and check it again by creating a tree diagram.
 Guess: The total number of handshakes made in table of 6 people is:
6.5
S6 = =15
2
Check:

Counting from the tree diagram, there are 15 handshakes.

Another Guess: The total number of handshakes made in table of n people is:
n (n−1)
Sn=
2
Check: We can intepret the above formula using multiplication rule.
There are n persons in a table, each of whom, will handshake the other (n-1) people.
Therefore there are n(n-1) handshakes. However, the handshake of person A and person B
is the same as the handshake of person B and person A. Therefore, we have counted the
n(n−1)
handshakes twice. Hence, there are only handshakes that happened.
2

Step 4: Looking Back

- Students must reread the problem and check the solution to see if it meets the conditions
stated in the problem.
- Students must ask themselves questions such as, “Is my tree diagram logical and
reasonable?”
- Reread the problem and review the diagram to note any missing or repeated information.
For instance, students can count the number of the handshake between two people, say A
and B, twice, which can results in wrong total number.
- Students should illustrate or write down their thinking processes, estimations, and
approaches. This will help them visualize the steps they took to solve the problem and
make generalizations about their work. For example in this question, they can restate the
steps: Determine the roots and the branches of the tree diagram – Appropriately draw the
lines showing the relationship between the roots and the branches – Cross out the
relationship (the handshake) that is already counted – Check the answer and review the
diagram.
 - Students should consider whether it is possible for them to have solved the problem in a
simpler way. There are some more ways to deal with this problem using other strategies
that teachers can suggest:
 Drawing a Diagram

A geometric representation may also be used to solve the

problem. The handshake problem is equivalent to finding
the number of segments that connect six non-collinear
points. The similar technique can be applied to other
numbers of people.

In this solution, it is easy to count the segments, which is

equivalent to the handshakes. It is clear that there are 15
handshakes.

 Creating a Table
We use a table to exhaust the number of handshakes. Each
A B C D E F person do not have to handshake with himself, so we put the
A BA CA DA EA FA black diagonal. We represent the handshake by naming the
person in the column first, and then the row as shown in the
B AB CB DB EB FB above figure. So column B and row A is handshake BA. The
C AC BC DC EC FC similar technique can be applied to other numbers of people.
We now construct all the possible handshakes.
D AD BD CD ED FD
Notice that the handshakes in the yellow part of the
E AE BE CE DE FE
table are repeated in the gray part with the order of
F AF BF CF DF EF the representation reversed; that is, FE in the yellow
cell, and EF is the gray cell. Since handshake EF is the
same as handshake FE, to determine the number of handshakes, we just count the yellow-
colored cell (or the handshakes in the gray-colored cells). By counting the cells, we see that
there are only 15 handshakes.

- Creating a Tree Diagram is an efficient way to check visually the result and the procedure
during the work as well, especially for the problem containing not much data and being not
too complicated, so this strategy is significantly useful for and best used with primary
students. But for higher education, when students have to deal with problems consisting of
much more information, they have to use another tools to approach the solution.
For example, in this problem, if the number of people in each table are not 6 but 16 or
even more than that, drawing a tree diagram might be time-consuming and sometimes
‘impossible’. In such case, students can use multiplication rule to find out the answers as
mentioned before.