Activity Guide Using the Problem Solving Process

Unit 1 Lesson 3 Name(s)_______________________________________________ Period ______ Date ___________________ Activity Guide - Using the Problem Solving Process Word Search Overview Working with a team find the following words in the grid. They may be horizontal, vertical, or diagonal in any direction. DEFINE, PREPARE, TRY, REFLECT, PROBLEM, SOLVE, COMPUTER, SCIENCE Objective Find and circle all 8 words as quickly as you can! E S D J B N T H P H S H U O Y L F F Y H S R X M I J I Y U V C R O P I X U B E E Q K A X U H R R B W I G H E S D D R T X H E P P O T Y I U S E D H I W J J D Y K J R N K E Y Q M E K N Y N O N X X S O R H E X W Y R W I U F C V A Q R R V I D O R T Q W H A P X J D E N G G N P U W M I C U L O K E P D E G W H X B U V K P X P F P Y J M R H Z G K P I O A U Y F K H B A M V Q O C D K D V Q J Q R W J C F L W X O K B A F X B T D T D K V G H V K L E M C L B R L Q M F M E C K H H U D V V T G E S O L V E N B S O F B P X H Q T P O M C X Q F M Q G D O R G I N H X B R T Y U M X M R S U O T X I V G N A D P D J X E Z N H D C N J I Y A H M A E Y D R V I B T C E L F E R M O S E T Z B F Z G I B L Y E A P A R B V R Q M W E O O I Y J W N J H H H J G K V S M Z O X P I B C C V I C N T A M S U P F U M L V N D D R D O Once You’re Done Head to the last page of the activity guide and fill in the row there for the “Word Search” in the table. 1 Birthday Guests Overview A big group of 15 guests is getting together at a restaurant for a birthday. The restaurant has 3 tables that can each seat only 5 people. Below you can find some information about the people who are attending the party. Aysha, Ben, Carla, Damien, Eric, Fan, Genaro, Hannah, Isaias, Jessica, Kyla, Laila, Max, Nazek, Owen Close Friends (Try to put them together) Aysha and Damien Max and Isaias Nazek and Laila Owen and Genaro Ben and Jessica Genaro and Eric In a Fight (Try to keep them apart) Aysha and Genaro Ben and Hannah Fan and Max Damien and Laila Isaias and Owen Kyla and Jessica Objective Find the best possible arrangement of guests at the party. Draw your solution in the space below. To help you can cross out the letters of the names you’ve assigned in the row below. A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O Once You’re Done Head to the last page of the activity guide and fill in the row there for the “Birthday Guests” in the table. 2 Plan a Trip Overview You and your friends will be going on a trip. You’ve got the entire school day to travel, and you need to get back to school by the end of the trip, but otherwise how your trip goes it up to you. Plan the best trip that you can! Explore the Tool Head to https://www.google.com/maps and search for your school. Look at the different options for finding directions to other locations. Don’t worry about making a plan yet, but make sure you understand what kinds of information are available. Develop Goals Talk with your group for a few minutes. What are the most important things about your trip? Do you care what you see? How you get there? How long it takes? What it costs? Write down the goals you’ll use to decide what makes a good plan. Goals How My Plan Helps Reach this Goal Trip should only take one school day We want to go to _________ The time we spend getting there should be less than ______________ Make a Route Every member of your group should separately start planning your trip. You should select what places you want to go and what activities you want to do along the way. For each goal your group chose, list how your trip helps to reach it in the right column. In the space below record all the stops along your trip. Stops on My Trip Things We’ll See 3 Share Your Route and Get Feedback Share the route you developed with your teammates and explain why you think it is the best possible route given the goals you chose. Afterwards, record their feedback and reactions to your route in the space below. Is there anything that needs to change? How could your route improve? Improve and Finalize Using the feedback from your teammates update your route. In the space below write down the new trip that you and your group agreed on. Stops on Our Trip Things We’ll See Once You’re Done Head to the last page of the activity guide and fill in the row there for the “Plan a Trip” in the table. 4 Problem Solving Process Notes Reflecting on Using the Process How did you use each step of the problem solving process to solve this problem? Give examples of what each step looked like as you were solving that problem. Define Prepare Try Reflect Word Search Birthday Guests Plan a Trip The Purpose of Each Step For each step in the problem solving process write one sentence explaining its purpose. Why is it included in the problem solving process? Define:_______________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________ Prepare: _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________ Try:__________________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________ Reflect:_______________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________ Defining Problems with Questions Before starting to solve a problem it’s important that you have defined it well. What questions or strategies can you use to better define or understand a problem? Record them in the space below. 5