ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

First of all, we would like to thank and appreciate those people and individuals
for their helps. Without them, our project cannot be done completely and perfectly.

We would like to thank Madam Seah Ai Kuan, our Basic Mathematics lecturer,
who is the most responsible for helping us to complete this coursework. She gave us
many useful advices and guidance, especially the methods and ways about how to
do this assignment. Besides, she gave a lot of examples of routine and non-routine
problems to us and this helped a lot in our problem solving skills.

Next, during the process of this assignment, our parent gave us many
supports, either in morals or in financials. Moreover, they teached the way to reduce
stress and told us to have confidence in ourselves when we doubted ourselves.
Their encouragement is really our source of willpower.

In addition, a special thanks goes to our friends especially our course mates
and others friends. They gave us a lot of information. Meanwhile they also gave us
many insightful comments and reviewed our work. “Four eyes see more than two”.
So, we can have more idea to add into our assignment to improve it.

Before we end our acknowledgment, we would like to record our thanks and
express our highest appreciations again to those people and individuals who help us
in the way of direct or indirect to complete this course work.

Thank you.
INTRODUCTION

We will meet a lot of problems even in our non-routine life or in our routine life.
So, we should have problem solving skills to solve these problems. The mathematics
education community has espoused the importance of developing student’s problem
solving skills. Meanwhile research in mathematics education discusses the
importance of using multiple representations in the problem solving processes.

To develop problem solving skills, students should be exposed to both routine

and non-routine problems that both require problem solving skills. With both of the
problems they exposed to, they are offered the opportunity to learn and think about
the ways to solve these problems.

Math problems often require established procedures and knowing what and
when to apply them. Routine problem can be solved easily with obvious sequence of
steps. Meanwhile the non-routine problems like the complex problems are require
more than one mathematical operation and need to understand, synthesis, retrieve
and organize it.

There are few types of the non-routine problem which are drill exercise,
simple translation problem, process problem, applied problem and the puzzle
problem. Hence, the Polya’s Model is introduced to solve these non-routine
problems. Polya’s Model is introduced by George Polya. This solving model is a
systematic process that requires thinking skills to achieve the aim of solving the
problem by using various types of strategies.
 Routine
& Non-routine
Problem Solving
Routine problem

Routine problem solving stresses the use of sets of known or prescribed

procedures (algorithms) to solve problems. The problems presented to students are
simple one-step situations requiring a simple procedure to be performed.

One-step, two-step, or multiple-step routine problems can be easily assessed

with paper and pencil tests typically focusing on the algorithm or algorithms being
used. Because of this, routine problem solving receives a great deal of attention by
classroom teachers. With the advent of computers, which can quickly perform the
most complex arrangements of algorithms for multi-step routine problems, the
amount of instructional time and the extent to which these problems are tested is
being reassessed. Today’s typical workplace does not require a high level of
proficiency in solving multi-step routine problems without the use of a calculator or
computer.

Routine problem involved an arithmetic operation with the characteristics:

- Present a question to be answered
- Gives the facts or numbers to use
- Can be solved by direct application of previously learned algorithms and the
basic task is to identify the operation appropriate for solving the problem

STRENGTH: easily assessed by paper-pencil tests

WEAKNESS: least relevant to human problem solving
Non-routine problem

Non-routine problem solving stresses the use of heuristics and often requires
little to no use of algorithms. Non-routine problem is not aware of a standard
procedure for solving it.

There are two types of non routine problem solving situations, static and
active. Static non routine problems have a fixed known goal and fixed known
elements which are used to resolve the problem. Solving a jigsaw puzzle is an
example of a static non routine problem. Given all pieces to a puzzle and a picture of
the goal, learners are challenged to arrange the pieces to complete the picture.
Various heuristics such as classifying the pieces by colour, connecting the pieces
which form the border, or connecting the pieces which form a salient feature to the
puzzle, such as a flag pole, are typical ways in which people attempt to resolve such
problems. Active non routine problem solving may have a fixed goal with changing
elements; a changing goal or alternative goals with fixed elements; or changing or
alternative goals with changing elements. The heuristics used in this form of problem
solving are known as strategies.

The problems use of processes for more than those of routine problems with the
characteristics:
- Use of strategies involving some non-algorithms approaches
- Can be solving in many distinct ways requiring different thinking processes.

STRENGTH: most relevant to human problem solving

WEAKNESS: least able to be assessed by paper-pencil tests
Problem
Solving
Strategies
Problem solving strategies
To solve the problems completely, there are some strategies are required to solve
the problems:
 Guess and check
 Make a random guess and check the answer whether true or false.
 Guess the answers according to certain sequence.

 Making a table
 List out the possibilities systematically.
 Look at all the information that is required.

 Looking for a pattern

 Introduce the idea that many sequences can be constructed.
 Study specific pattern.
 Make conclusions.

 Simplify the problem

 Trying simpler problems.
 Use the similarities found to simplify the problem.

 Acting out a situation/ simulation

 Acting out the problem forces an understanding of the nature of the problem.
 Some manipulative objects can be used to represent things or people.
 Simulate the action by making, drawing or showing by a table.

 Drawing diagram or picture

 Use a diagram to represent the problem.

 Working backwards
 Work your way backward, step by step, to the beginning.

 Logical reasoning
 Use logical reason to solve the problem.
 Decide how the facrs of the problem are related to each other.
 George Polya

George Pólya
 George Pólya (December 13, 1887 – September 7, 1985,) was a Hungarian
mathematician. He was born in Budapest, Hungary. He was a professor of
mathematics from 1914 to 1940 at ETH Zürich in Switzerland and from 1940 to 1953
at Stanford University carrying on as Stanford Professor Emeritus the rest of his life
and career. He worked on a great variety of mathematical topics, including series,
number theory, mathematical analysis, geometry, algebra, and probability. In his later
days, he spent considerable effort on trying to characterize the methods that people
use to solve problems, and to describe how problem-solving should be taught and
learned.

He wrote four books on the subject: How to Solve It, Mathematical Discovery:
On Understanding, Learning, and Teaching Problem Solving; Mathematics and
Plausible Reasoning Volume I: Induction and Analogy in Mathematics, and
Mathematics and Plausible Reasoning Volume II: Patterns of Plausible Reasoning.
He is quoted as saying that 'if you cannot solve a problem, then there is an easier
problem you can solve: find it’.

George Pólya's parents were Anna Deutsch and Jakab Pólya who were both
Jewish. His father Jakab (who died in 1897) had been born Jakab Pollák, of Jewish
parents, and with a surname which suggested Polish origin. It is likely that ancestors
had emigrated from Poland to Hungary, where a lesser degree of anti-Semitism
existed. However Jakab converted to Catholicism believing that this would help him
advancing in a career and changed his name to the more Hungarian Pólya. George’s
mother had also been of Jewish background with similar history. Her paternal
grandfather, Max Deutsch, had in fact converted to Presbyterianism and worshipped
with Greek Orthodox Romanians.

George’s father Jakab had been a solicitor with a great mind, but one who
was prepared to pursue a case in which he believed with no fees. He was not
financially successful despite the time he lived in being considered a golden age for
Hungary.

As a student George attended a state run high school with a good academic
reputation. He was physically strong and participated in various sports. His school
had a strong emphasis on learning from memory, a technique which he found
tedious at the time but later found useful. He was not particularly interested in
mathematics in the younger years. Whereas he knew about the Eötvös Competition
and apparently wrote it he also apparently failed to hand in his paper.

He graduated from Marko Street Gymnasium in 1905, ranking among the top
four students and earning a scholarship to the University of Budapest, which he
entered in 1905. He commenced studying law, emulating his father, but found this
study boring and changed to language and literature. He had become particularly
interested in Latin and Hungarian, where he had had good teachers. He also began
studying physics, mathematics and philosophy. His development was greatly
influenced by the legendary mathematician Lipót Fejér, a man also of wit and
humour, who also taught Riesz, Szegö and Erdös. Fejér had discovered his theorem
on the arithmetic mean of Fourier Series at the age of 20.

Pólya soon concentrated his studies on mathematics and in 1910 finished his
doctorate studies, except for his dissertation. He took a year in Vienna and returned
to Budapest in 1911-12 to give his doctoral dissertation and met Gábor Szegö, seven
years younger, who was to become one of his major collaborators. In the fall of 1912
he went to Göttingen for postdoctoral study and met David Hilbert, Richard Courant,
Felix Klein and Hermann Weyl. In 1913 he was offered a position in Frankfurt, but
was discouraged from staying in Germany and turned the job down after being told
he was a “bloody Jew” by a ruffian on a train and went on to the University of Paris
for further postdoctoral work.
 In 1914 Pólya was called up by Hungary to fight in the war, but by this time he
had adopted Russell’s pacifism and refused to go. The fear that he might be arrested
for being unpatriotic meant that he did not return to his native country until after
World War II. In Zurich he met his future wife, Stella Weber. They married in 1918
and were still together 67 years later when Pólya died. They had no children.

Inspired by walks in the woods near Zurich, Pólya in 1912 published one of
his major results, the solution of the random walk problem. In this problem one walks
in an infinite rectangular grid system, at each node having an equal probability of
walking to each of the adjoining nodes on his next leg. Pólya was able to show that
in the two dimensional case it was almost certain (but with probability 1) that one
would eventually return to the original position, but one would almost never (with
probabilty 0) return to the origin in the case of three or more dimensions.

Pólya was interested in chemical structure, which led him in 1924 to

publishing the classification of seventeen plane-symmetry groups, a result which was
later to inspire the Dutch artist M.C. Escher. In 1924 he spent a year in England,
working with G.H. Hardy and J.E. Littlewood at Oxford and Cambridge. This
collaboration led to publication in 1934 of the book Inequalities, which included a
new proof by Pólya of the AM-GM inequality based on the Maclaurin expansion of
the exponential function.

In 1925 Pólya, with Szegö, published arguably one of his most influential
books, Aufgaben und Lehrsätze aus der Analysis, volumes 19 and 20 of the series
Die Grundlehren der Mathematischen Wissenschaften published by J. Springer,
Berlin. A whole generation - the generation of Erdös, Szekeres and their circle, and
later, learned their mathematics not so much from the lectures they attended but by
doing the problems of this book one after another and debating their solutions with
each other. Problem-solving as a method of teaching and learning may never have
been practiced on such a scale, and with such success, before (or since).

One of Pólya’s most famous results, the Pólya Enumeration Theorem, was
published in 1937. This also arose from his interest in chemical structure and looking
at possible configurations of the benzene ring and other figures with 6 vertices.
Generalising a theorem by Burnside in Group Theory, Pólya showed how one can
determine the number of different assignments of atoms, or colours, to vertices as
sides of geometrical figures.

In 1940 the Pólyas became increasingly concerned, with George’s Jewish

background, of the possibility of a German invasion of Switzerland, and decided to
leave for the United States.He was offered a research position by his old
collaborator, Gábor Szegö, now at Stanford, but he did not initially accept it, going
instead to Brown University. In 1942 he did move to Stanford, however, where he
stayed until his retirement from teaching in 1953. After 1953 he stayed at Stanford,
living at Palo Alto until his death, as a Professor Emeritus. In 1945, Pólya published
one of his most famous books, How to Solve It. Then in 1951 he published, with
Gábor Szegö, Isoperimetric Inequalities in Mathematical Physics.

Gábor Szegö had been a winner of the Eötvös Competition in 1912 and Pólya
saw the value in competitions. In 1946 Pólya and Szegö founded the Stanford
University Competitive Examination in Mathematics. In its first year 322 students
from 60 schools in California entered. The competition grew to having typically 1200
students from 150 schools in 3 western states. However the competition was
terminated in 1965 when Stanford shifted its emphasis to postgraduate study. Pólya
however continued his activity in this area by publishing problem material in books
and journals.

Pólya was particularly interested in the high school curriculum and was
concerned about the new maths curriculum. He eventually saw the curriculum
change back to basics and was not happy with the way this happened either.In 1954
he published the two volume book Mathematics and Plausible Reasoning and in
1962 and 1965 a further two volume set entitled Mathematical Discovery.

From his retirement in 1953 Pólya took an active interest in improving the
standard of teaching and took steps to establish, with NSF funding, eight-week
Summer Institutes for mathematics teachers, first at the college level (1953-1960),
then later for teachers of high school and eventually moving the Institutes to
Switzerland.

He died on 7 September 1985 in Palo Alto, California, USA.

Polya’s Model
 Polya’s Model is introduced by George Polya. This solving model is a
systematic process that requires thinking skills to achieve the aim of solving the
problem by using various types of strategies. There are four basic steps to solving
problems that is, understanding the problem, devising a plan, carrying out the plan,
and looking back.

Four steps in the Polya’s Model:

1. Understanding the problem

• You have to understand the problem.

• What is the unknown? What are the data? What is the condition?

• Is it possible to satisfy the condition?

 Is the condition sufficient to determine the unknown? Or is it insufficient? Or

redundant? Or contradictory?

• Draw a figure. Introduce suitable notation.

• Separate the various parts of the condition. Can you write them down?

2. Devising a plan

• Find the connection between the data and the unknown. You may be obliged
to consider auxiliary problems if an immediate connection cannot be found.
You should obtain eventually a plan of the solution.

• Have you seen it before? Or have you seen the same problem in a slightly
different form?

• Do you know a related problem? Do you know a theorem that could be

useful?

• Look at the unknown! And try to think of a familiar problem having the same or
a similar unknown.
 • Here is a problem related to yours and solved before. Could you use it? Could
you use its result? Could you use its method? Should you introduce some
auxiliary element in order to make its use possible?

• Could you restate the problem? Could you restate it still differently? Go back
to definitions.

• If you cannot solve the proposed problem try to solve first some related
problem. Could you imagine a more accessible related problem? A more
general problem? A more special problem? An analogous problem? Could you
solve a part of the problem? Keep only a part of the condition, drop the other
part; how far is the unknown then determined, how can it vary? Could you
derive something useful from the data? Could you think of other data
appropriate to determine the unknown? Could you change the unknown or
data, or both if necessary, so that the new unknown and the new data are
nearer to each other?

• Did you use all the data? Did you use the whole condition? Have you taken
into account all essential notions involved in the problem?

3. Carrying out the plan

• Carry out your plan.

• Carrying out your plan of the solution, check each step. Can you see clearly
that the step is correct? Can you prove that it is correct?

4. Looking Back

• Examine the solution obtained.

• Can you check the result? Can you check the argument?

• Can you derive the solution differently? Can you see it at a glance?

• Can you use the result, or the method, for some other problem?
 Routine
& Non-routine
Problem
Routine problems:

1.

Bus stop Bus stop Bus stop Bus stop

A stretch of road is 9.6 kilometers long. 4 bus stops are needed along the road.
If the distance between each bus stop is equal, how far is the third bus stop from
the last bus stop?

2. A lady has to be at work by 8:30 a.m. and it takes her 10 minutes to get dressed,
25 minutes to eat her breakfast and 40 minutes to walk to work. What time should
she walk up?

3. Janiry opened her Geography book and found that the sum of the facing pages
was 157. What pages did she open to?

4. The mean of a set of numbers is 0.39. The sum of the numbers is 1.56. How
many numbers are in the set?

5. Kelly's English test grades are 86, 94, 87 and 85. What grade must she get on
the fifth test in order to get a mean of 90 for the term?

Non-routine problems:

1. Anna and Charlie ran a 400 meter race. When Anna crossed the finish line
Charlie had run only 350 meters. They decided to race again and Anna was
 starting 50 meters behind the starting line. If they both run at the same constant
speed as they did in the first race, who wins the second race?

2. At a kid’s party, chocolates are given to all the guests. There was a bar of white
chocolate for every 3 guests, a bar of dark chocolate for every 2 guests and a
bar of milk chocolate for every 4 guests. There were 65 bar of chocolate in all.
How many guests were there at the party?

3. Joey has a small rectangular swimming pool in front of her house. The
swimming pool is 7m long and 5m wide. Joey wants to build a concrete
pavement around the edges of the swimming pool having the same width. She

has enough cement to cover an area of 10 . What is the width of the pavement

which Joey could build?

4. Two television channels are showing the same advertisement of toothpaste.

Channel V show the advertisement every 24 minutes. Channel Fairy show the
advertisement every 9 minutes. Both channels show the advertisement at 1:30
p.m. When is the next time the channels will show the advertisement at the
same time? When is the next time they will both show the advertisement on the
half hour? (Examples: 12:30 a.m., 10:30 p.m.)

5. Lawrence and his family must drive an average of 300 miles per day to complete
their vacation on time. On the first five days, they travel 310 miles, 270 miles,
290 miles, and 320 miles. How many miles must they travel on the fifth day in
order to finish their vacation on time?

6. Divide the face of the clock into three parts with two lines so that the sum of the
numbers in the three parts is equal.

7. The fruit hawker plans to sell 100 fruits in one day. He knows from previous day
that he is likely to sell the fruits in the ratio
Orange: Apple: Mango = 9: 4: 7
He selects fruits for the day in the same ratio. What is the number of apple he
selects?
8. A group of ten students are being photographed. The teacher places them into ten
different positions. He continues to shuffle them until he has taken pictures of the
ten persons in all possible groupings. How many pictures will he take?

9.

This stairway is made of cubes. How many cubes would be needed to make the
steps 9 steps high?

10. Three liters of an alkaline of concentration greater than 40% is added to one liter
of the same kind of alkaline of concentration 25%. Let 'Y' be the concentration of
the result. Express the possible values of 'Y' using inequalities.

11. If Yoanne is older than Jackson, Jackson is older than Michelle. Michelle is
younger than Yoanne and Ranney is older than Yoanne. List the people from
youngest to oldest.

12. In a Mathematics test, Sally got higher marks than Jacky but lower marks than
Brownie. Who got the higher marks among themselves?

13. The X bookshop makes an analysis on the sales of books in January. The sales
of different type book are shows as a pie chart. The bookshop sells 350 books.
115 of the books sells are reference books. What is the angle for the reference
books sector?
14. Nick treat his 20 friends eat some pie and pudding and the cost of pie and
pudding was RM4.65. If a pie costs 21 cents and a pudding costs 25 cents. How
many pie did he bought to treat his friends?

15. There are 12 people in a room. 6 people are wearing hats and 4 people are
wearing spectacles, 3 people are wearing both. How many people are in not
wearing both?

16. Amy’s wants to repaint her house. The first coat of paint for the outside of her

house requires 1L of paint for each 20 . The second coat requires 1L for every

25 . If the cost of paint costs RM4.25 per liter, what will be the cost of two

coats of paint for the four outside walls of her house 18 m long, 14 m wide, and
8 m height?

17. Three boys play a card game three rounds. There are two winners and one loser
on each round of the card game. The boy who loses in a round has to double the
number of tokens that the other two boys have by giving up some of his own
tokens. Each boy loses 1 round. At the end of the three rounds game, each boy
has 30 tokens. How many tokens did each boy have at the beginning of the
game?

18. Akma bought a basket of oranges from the fruit stall. Then, she gave half of the
oranges to her mother, eight oranges to a neighbour, half of the remaining
oranges to her sister and she kept the remaining three oranges for herself. How
many oranges did she start with in the basket?

19. Villy and Yoyo can finish a homework in 10 hours; Villy and Zax can do the same
homework in 12 hours; Yoyo and Zax can do the same homework in 20 hours.
How long will it take Carol to do the homework alone?
20. An old lady in the market had a vast quantity of fish balls to sell, when asked how
many she said:
if you divide the number of fish balls by 2 there will be one fish ball left.
if you divide the number of fish balls by 3 there will be one fish ball left.
if you divide the number of fish balls by 4 there will be one fish ball left.
if you divide the number of fish balls by 5 there will be one fish ball left.
 if you divide the number of fish balls by 6 there will be one fish ball left.
if you divide the number of fish balls by 7 there will be one fish ball left.
if you divide the number of fish balls by 8 there will be one fish ball left.
if you divide the number of fish balls by 9 there will be one fish ball left.
if you divide the number of fish balls by 10 there will be one fish ball left.

Finally if you divide the number of fish balls by 11 there will be NO FISH BALL
left!
How many fish balls did the old lady have?

21. Take the 15 pool balls (numbers 01 to 15) and a pool triangle and
arrange the balls such that every ball number in the upper 4 rows
is the difference between the numbers of the two balls directly below.

22. Pipes A and B can fill a tank in two hours and three hours respectively. Pipe C
can empty the full tank in five hours. If all pipes are opened at the same time
when the tank is empty, how long will it take to fill the tank?

23. Joanne goes to school every weekday. If Joanne walks to school and rides
home, it takes one and a half hours. When she rides both ways, it takes half an
hour. How long would it take to walk the round trip?

24. Johnny bought 9 boxes of red pens and 3 boxes of blue pens. Each boxes of red
pens contained 12 pens, and each boxes of blue pens contained 6 pens. How
many more cans of red pens than blue pens did Johnny buy?

25. Flavia can complete an assignment in two weeks and Pinky can complete the
same assignment in three weeks. If Flavia and Pinky start doing on the
assignment together and Flavia quits 12 days before the assignment is
completed, in how many days will the assignment be completed?

26. The price of a Nokia mobile phone was raised by RM50 in 2005. In 2007, the
price was lowered by RM 80 because of lower demand. In 2009, the price was
 halved to RM 220 due to the competition from a brand mobile phone. Find the
original price of the mobile phone.

27. A well is 30 feet. A grasshopper at the bottom of the well climbs up 5 feet each
day and slips back 1.5 feet each night. The grasshopper reaches the top of the
wall on Monday. What is the day that the grasshopper falls down the well?

28. A pizza boy needs to send some pizza. From restaurant, he rides 14 kilometers
west, 9 kilometers south, 6 kilometers east, and 11 kilometers north. How far and
in which direction must the pizza boy go to get back to the restaurant?

29. A tank is fitted with 6 pipes, some of them that fill the tank and others empty the
tank. Each pipe that fill the tank can fill it in 7 hours, while each of those that
empty the tank can empty it in 5 hours. If all the pipes are kept open when the
tank is full, it will take exactly 8 hours for the tank to empty. How many of these
are fill pipes?

30. Every month, a factory worker gets salary. Assume last year he had no money,
and kept it up to now. Then he spends 1/2 of her money on house rent, then 1/3
of the remaining money on maintaining of his car, and then 1/4 of the remaining
money on foods. After he used all of that, he had RM 3333 left. Assuming he
only gets money by his salary, how much money does he earn every month?

31. In five years, Sandy will be two-thirds as old as her aunt. Three years ago she
was half as old as the aunt is now. How old are Sandy and her aunt?

32. A wafer has nine different flavours. A group of children come to buy and each
buys a wafer with two flavours. If none of the children choose the same
combination of flavours, and every different combination of flavours is chosen,
how many children are there?

FLAVOURS
1 Pineapple
2 Milk
3 Chocolate
 4 Yam
5 Blueberry
6 Strawberry
7 Cappuccino
8 Cheese
9 Kiwi

33. One morning, a frog fell down a hole 5 meters deep. The frog would climb 1/3 of
a metre every day but at night it slips down 1/9 of a meter. At this rate, how
many days use by the frog in order to get out from the hole?

34. Two sampans leave from opposite shores of a river at the same time and travel
at constant but different speeds. They pass each other 650 yards from one
shore and continue to the banks where they turn around. On their return trip the
sampans pass again 370 yards from the opposite shore. How wide is the river?

35. Sandy, Martin, Tommy, and Jason have invented a new complicated game
called ‘ball’. The rule for this game is the children should always pass the ball to
the right side. Martin passes the ball to Tommy. Jason and Martin stand facing
each other. Can you tell where each child stands?

36. In the hall, from a group of boys and girls. 15 girls leave and two boys remain for
each girl. From this group, 45 boys leave and 5 girls remain for each boy. How
many boys and girls were there at the beginning?

37. In three archery games, Jack scored 194, 221, and 189. What score will he
need in 4th game in order to have an average score of 200 for all four games?
 Problem Solving
using
Polya’s Model
and strategies

Instruction:
Illustrate the use of Poyal’s Modal in solving two of the word problems gathered.

Question 9:
 This stairway is made of cubes. How many cubes would be needed to make the
steps 9 steps high?

Step 1:

Understanding problem:

• We need to find out the numbers of cubes that need to make the cubes have 9
steps high.

Step 2:

Devising a plan:

• Look for a pattern for the cubes.

Step 3:
Carrying out the plan: Pattern is n +

2 steps 3 cubes 2+1 (cumulative sum

before number,
3 steps 6 cubes 3 + (2 + 1) n), where n is 1,
2, 3, 4……
4 steps 10 cubes 4 + (3 + 2 + 1)

5 steps 15 cubes 5 + (4 + 3 + 2 + 1)

6 steps 21 cubes 6 + (5 + 4 + 3 + 2 + 1)

7 steps 28 cubes 7 + (6 + 5 + 4 + 3 + 2 + 1)

8 steps 36 cubes 8 + (7 + 6 + 5 + 4 + 3 + 2 + 1)

9 steps 45 cubes 9 + (8 + 7 + 6 + 5 + 4 + 3 + 2 + 1)

Step 4:
Looking back (check):

45 – 1 = 44
44 – 2 = 42
42 – 3 = 39
39 – 4 = 35
35 – 5 = 30
30 – 6 = 24
24 – 7 = 17
17 – 8 = 9
9–9=0
After we minus all the cubes we used, there are no cube remained.
So, that means the answer is correct.

∴ 45 cubes are needed to make the steps 9 steps high.

Question 32:

A wafer has nine different flavours. A group of children come to buy and each buys a
wafer with two flavours. If none of the children choose the same combination of
flavours, and every different combination of flavours is chosen, how many children
are there?
 FLAVOURS
1 Pineapple
2 Milk
3 Chocolate
4 Yam
5 Blueberry
6 Strawberry
7 Cappuccino
8 Cheese
10 Kiwi

Step 1:

Understanding the problem:

• There are 9 different flavours of wafer.

• Each of the group of the children buys a wafer with two different flavours and
none of them is choosing same combination of flavours.

• Identify the number of the group of the children.

Step 2:

Devising a plan:

• Listing down the ways of combination of different flavours. The number of the
ways represent how the number of the students of the group.

Step 3:
Carrying out a plan:

Listing down

The number of children = number of different combinations of two different flavours.

1,2 2,3 3,4 4,5 5,6 6,7 7,8 8,9

 1,3 2,4 3,5 4,6 5,7 6,8 7,9
1,4 2,5 3,6 4,7 5,8 6,9
1,5 2,6 3,7 4,8 5,9
1,6 2,7 3,8 4,9
1,7 2,8 3,9
1,8 2,9
1,9

36 = 8 + 7 + 6 + 5 + 4 + 3 + 2 + 1
There are 36 children.

Step 4:

Looking back:

• Examine the results again to check whether the result is true or false.

• To ensure no same combination and all the different combinations do occur.

Instruction:
Select 3 non-routine problems. Illustrate how you can solve the 3 non-routine word
problems by using different strategies.

A)
Question 15:
There are 12 people in a room. 6 people are wearing hats and 4 people are wearing
spectacles, 3 people are wearing both. How many people are in not wearing both?

Strategy used: 1. Drawing diagram

2. Using Equation
3. Acting out a situation

Strategy 1:
Drawing diagram

Hats Spectacles

III III I
IIIII
Answer:
5 people are in not wearing both hats and spectacles.

Strategy 2:
Using Equation

Let X be the people who wearing hats.

Let Y be the people who wearing spectacles.

X + Y - (X+ Y)
6+4 - 3 =7
 12 - 7 = 5

Answer:

5 people are in not wearing both hats and spectacles.

Strategy 3:

Acting out a situation/ simulation

1. Acting out a situation to understanding the problem.

2. Call out 12 students to represent the people in the room.
3. Prepares 6 hats to represent the hats.
4. Prepares 4 toy spectacles to represent the spectacles.
5. First, let 3 students wearing both hats and spectacles.
6. Then, let another 3 students wearing the hats.
7. After that, let another 1 student wearing the spectacles.
8. Next, we calculate the students that wearing hats, spectacles and both hats and
spectacles.
9. Lastly, we calculate the remaining students that are not wearing both.

B)
Question 23:

Joanne goes to school every weekday. If Joanne walks to school and rides home, it
takes one and a half hours. When she rides both ways, it takes half an hour. How
long would it take to walk the round trip?

Strategy used: 1. Making a table

2. Drawing diagram
Strategy 1:
Making a table

Go to school Go back home Time taken

Walks Rides 1 ½ hours
Rides Rides ½ hours
Walks Walks ?

Walks + rides = 1 ½ hours

Rides + rides = ½ hours

Then each ride is 15 minutes.

To find the time taken for walks:

1 ½ hours – 15 minutes = 1 hour 15 minutes

That means each walk is 1 hour 15 minutes.

Walks + Walks = 1 hour 15 minutes + 1 hour 15 minutes

= 2 hours 30 minutes

Answer: It would take 2 hours 30 minutes to walk the round trip.

Strategy 2:
Drawing diagram
A)

Walks
( 1 ½ hours)
Rides
House School

B)
Rides
( ½ hours)

Rides
 House School

C)
Walks
(?)

Walks
House School

Calculation: Walks + rides = 1 ½ hours

Rides + rides = ½ hours
Then each ride is 15 minutes.

To find the time taken for walks:

1 ½ hour – 15 minutes = 1 hour 15 minutes
That means each walk is 1 hour 15 minutes.

Walks + Walks = 1 hour 15 minutes + 1 hour 15 minutes

= 2 hours 30 minutes

Answer:
It would take 2 hours 30 minutes to walk the round trip.
C)

Question 37:

In three archery games, Jack scored 194, 221, and 189. What score will he need in
4th game in order to have an average score of 200 for all four games?

Strategy used: 1. Algebra equation

2. Logical reasoning
3. Making a table

Strategy 1:

Algebra equation
 = unknown score

Strategy 2:

Logical reasoning

If average needs to be 200, and there are 4 scores. The sum is 4 x 200 = 800.

From 800, subtract 194, 221, and 189.

= 800 – 194 – 221 - 189

= 196

The missing score is 196.

Strategy 3:

Making a table

Game Score Away from average Cumulative score away

form average

1 194 6 6

2 221 -21 -15

 3 189 11 -4

On the 4th games, it needs to be -4 over average.

200 – 4 = 196

Answer:

Jack need to score 196 in 4th game in order to have an average score of 200 for all
four games.
 Conclusion

Conclusion

We used Polya’s Model and different strategies in solving those non-routine

problems we found out. We chose two of these problems and solved using Polya’s
Model. The four steps in Polya’s Model guided us to solve these problems. First step
of Polya’s Model is understanding the problem. Next, devising a plan. Then, carrying
out the plan, and lastly looking back.

After that, we chose another three non-routine problems and solved each
problem using different strategies. First, we chose question 12 and we used three
different strategies that is drawing diagram, using equation, and acting out a situation
or simulation. Next, we chose question 23 and used strategies that are making a
table and draw diagram to solve it. Then, we chose question 37 and solved it using 3
different strategies that are algebra equation, logical reasoning, and making a table.

As a conclusion, after we solved these three questions using different

strategies, we found out that different situation of problems solved using different
strategies. The most commonly strategy is making a table. Moreover, drawing a
diagram is also a strategy that commonly used by people in order to solve non-
routine problems.
 Report

Report

First of all, we felt very happy because we finally finished our Basic
Mathematics assignment. It was the first step that costs troublesome. From the
moment we received this assignment, we found it hard to do so. But, we tried hardly
to do this assignment and we had finished it.

Besides, we learnt a lot of things from the progress of doing this assignment.
Our searching skills improved as we all went to the library to look up for reference
books and surf the internet to find those routine and non-routine problems.
 Next, we also learnt the skills to solve non-routine problem by using many
different strategies such as drawing diagram, making a table, looking for pattern and
others. These strategies really helped a lot in solving difficult problems easily. So, we
can use these problem solving skills effectively to overcome those problems that we
will meet in our daily life. By the way, choosing of the strategies is also very
important that different strategies solved different problems based on their situations.

Apart from that, in this assignment, we also learnt how to apply Polya’s Model
in solving non-routine problems. Polya’s Model which is introduced by George Polya
is a systematic process that requires thinking skills to solve the problem by using
different strategies. There are four steps in Polya’s Model which step by step we can
solve the non-routine problems easily and effectively. Our problem solivng skills
really improved a lot after we are exposed to Polya’s Model. This is because Polya’s
Model helped in solving non-routine problems easily.

Lastly, through this assignment, we have a chance to find out many non-
routine problems as we can. After that, we tried to solve those problems using
Polya’s Model and many different strategies. Practice makes perfect.
 Bibliography

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Randall I. Charles, John A. Dossey, Steven J. Leinwand, Cathy L. Seeley, Charles B.

Vonder Embse. (2002). Scott Foresman-Addison Wesley Middle School
Math Course 3. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall Inc..