Fourth and Fifth Graders Get Their First Problem

Now that Middle School students are well underway, Fourth and Fifth Graders will join in the I Love Math activities.  We will use puzzles and problems like this one to give them things to ponder.  We hope they will be drawn into the charm of mathematics so they persist over an extended period of time, and learn to be creative in their pursuit of a solution.

Along the way, we will ask them to consider what mathematicians do.  They will develop a list of things mathematicians do.  They will begin to see that they do these very things all the time.  That list will become a portfolio of strategies for them to try when they get stuck.  They really are already mathematicians.

Here is the problem they will receive in the next 48 hours:

Count the Squares

Look at this checkerboard.  How many squares do you see?

 

In one class, a student saw one square.

Another student saw 36 squares.

Another student said 37.

Another student saw more.

Explain what each student was seeing.

How many squares do you see?  Explain your answer completely.