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Recognize where mathematics might be helpful for clarifying an issue or solving a problem,

understand which mathematical approach/function is likely to be most helpful, and efficiently


and effectively solve the problem. What kind of problem is this, how should I go about solving it,
and have I really solved it?
What kind of problem is this?
How should I go about solving it?
Is my plan working? What do I do if I get stuck?
Have I really solved it?
What did I learn from working with this problem?
Task Ideas:
A hypothesis was presented that catalog size and product diversity drive higher sales.
What do we need to know to assess the validity of this hypothesis? ales may also be
proportional to the amount of time a potential customer retains the catalog. !ow could
one ascertain this?
"ielsen style ratings of #$$$ families were used to collect data. ample size and error
estimates were mentioned. %ey drivers of behavior &lifestyle, income, education' were
mentioned, but this list may not be complete. What needs to be known about these
families to predict their buying behavior? What does (lifestyle) include? !ow would we
*uantify some of these variables?
!ow does the age of a used car affect its price? !ow does it affect its repair costs? What
is the best age to buy a used car?
Assess the validity and efficiency of proposed problem+framing and problem+solving
approaches, and develop appropriate alternatives as needed. ,e+bunk
inaccurate/misleading/inappropriate uses of mathematics. Is this a sound approach? Is this a
valid analysis?
How do I know if my approach makes sense? How do I explain it to someone else?
Task Ideas:
A credit card company whose motto is (see the world on credit,) charges #.-./ in interest
on the unpaid balance in an account each month, and re*uires a minimum account
payment of 01 of the outstanding balance each month. uppose you charge 2#$$ each
month and make only the minimum payment each month. !ow much will you owe at the
time of your 03
th
bill? Assuming you pay the whole bill at the end of that period, how
much will be interest?
4here are two monthly rates for local telephone service in your town. 5hoice # has a base
rate of 2##.06 for 0$$ calls plus .$60- for each call over 0$$. 5hoice 0 is 203.6$ for an
unlimited number of calls. !ow do you decide which plan is better?
A student strained her knee in an intramural volleyball game, and her doctor has
prescribed an anti+inflammatory drug to reduce the swelling. he is to take two 00$+
milligram tablets every . hours for #$ days. !er kidneys filter 7$1 of this drug from her
body every . hours. !ow much of the drug will be in her system after 03 hours?
Apply understanding of the properties of two+ and three+dimensional shapes to problems related
to relations between area, perimeter, and volume.
What does this shape look like? Or How do you describe this shape?
Task Ideas:
8ou are installing track lighting in an old warehouse that is being remodeled into a
restaurant. 4he lights can ade*uately illuminate up to #6 feet from the bulbs and, at that
distance, illuminate a circle with a 7 foot diameter. 9igure out where to place the tracks
and the bulbs for ma:imum illumination of the customer area.
A stretch of a suburban road lined with shopping plazas carries heavy commuter traffic.
4he road has #6 travel signals, unevenly spaced, at the intersections with cross streets and
mall entrances. 9igure out how to time the lights in order to ma:imize the flow of
commuter traffic.
;se estimation, (reasonableness) and appropriate measurement methods to efficiently approach
problems, while also assessing the amount of error resulting from such estimation &and whether
the error is an acceptable degree of tolerance'. How precise do we need to be here and is this
result precise enough?
What should the right answer look like? How does that affect my approach?
Task Ideas:
!ow much paper does The ew !ork Times use in a week? A paper company that wishes
to make a bid to become their sole supplier needs to know whether they have enough
current capacity. <f the company were to store a two+week supply of newspaper, will their
empty #3,$$$ s*uare foot warehouse be big enough?
5onsider a public high school mathematics teacher who feels that students should work
five nights a week, averaging about -6 minutes a night, doing focused on+task work and
who intends to grade all homework with comments and corrections. What is a reasonable
number of hours per week such a teacher should allocate for grading homework?
When will your town fill up its landfill? <s this a very urgent matter for the town=s waste
management personnel to assess in depth?
>stimate probabilities and predict outcomes from real+world data samples. What"s the trend?
What"s the likely outcome?
#add a third $uestion tto the end?% What is the best way to communicate this information?
Task Ideas:
A city is served by two different ambulance companies. 5ity logs record the date, the
time of the call, the ambulance company and the response time for each ?## call &data set
provided'. Analyze these data and write a report to the 5ity 5ouncil &with supporting
charts and graphs' advising it on which ambulance company the ?## operators should
choose to dispatch for calls from this region.
,iscover and identify underlying and unobvious patterns and relationships in multi+variable
problems, and e:press them as functions. What"s the pattern?
What"s the pattern? What does it help you see?
How do you represent a mathematical idea?
Task Ideas:
A lottery winner died after 6 of the 0$ years in which he was to receive annual payments
on a 26 million winning. At the time of his death, he had @ust received the fifth payment
of 206$,$$$. Aecause the man did not have a will, the @udge ordered the remaining lottery
proceeds to be auctioned and set the minimum bid at 2#.- million. Why was the
minimum bid set so low? !ow much would you be willing to bid for the lottery
proceeds?

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