Mice in a cage

Abstract

Students will engage in a both-addends-unknown problem to explore the different ways that seven mice can be arranged in two cages. Students will work with combinations of seven and have the opportunity to justify and reason about the total number of combinations possible. Students will also make generalizations about the relationship between the number of mice and the total number of combinations possible. Each month, elementary school teachers are presented with a problem along with suggested instructional notes; asked to use the problem in their own classrooms; and encouraged to report solutions, strategies, reflections, and misconceptions to the journal audience.