Problem Solving, Spider and the Fly

Wednesday, 29 October 2014 | 2 Comments

How would use this in your classroom (the problem, not the video)?

I'm keen to read your input. I'm keen to learn.

I need to do a better job of integrating problem-solving into my lessons, I have a largish audience for this blog with vast amounts of experience - what better way than to learn together?

Posted in • Lesson Idea • Problem Solving • Teach Me | Short URL: http://mths.co/3899

Comments

Meagan Rodda on 18 November 14 at 06:53 AM #

I love this problem. I use it as an assessment task for Pythagoras. We first work out all of the different nets, then fold them and mark the spider and fly and then use Pythagoras to work out the shortest path. The result always surprises the kids. I get them to describe their method of solving and their conclusions.

author

Simon Job on 18 November 14 at 09:11 AM #

Did you give them specific instructions or just consider the different nets as a class discussion/activity? Did you ask them to present their results in a specific way?

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Simon Job — eleventh year of teaching maths in a public high school in Western Sydney, Australia.
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