Solving Problems

This week in math class I learned all about solving problems! I have always had a hard time with solving problems in math and this week I learned all about the basics. First, it helped for me to understand what exactly a problem is.

A problem is a situation for which the following conditions exist:

1. It involves a question that represents a challenge for the individual.
2. The question cannot be answered immediately by some routine procedure known to the individual.
3. The individual accepts the challenge. 

Second, I needed to understand what exactly problem solving is.

Problem Solving is a process by which an individual uses previously learned concepts, facts, and relationships, along with various reasoning skills and strategies to answer a question or questions about a situation. 

Third, I learned and understood the great problem solving model! Here is a little more information about the problem solving model that helped me learn all I needed to know about solving problems in math!

http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~ituba/math303s08/mathideas/mmi10_01_03.pdf

After learning all the basics of problem solving, I got to thinking...when will I use these strategies in real life?! I thought for a long time and even had a great discussion with my husband about it. I thought it would be fun to share some of the things we came up with! 

• Paying bills - figuring out how much money you will have to pay your bills and what you will have left over after. 
• Traveling - distance and time.
• Building - creating stuff for around your house (benches, shelves, etc.)
• Shopping - figuring out discounts, making sure you have the right amount of money, figuring out taxes, etc.
• Cooking - If you don't have the right amount of ingredients, how can you still make it work?! 
• Health - counting calories, how far you run, etc. 

After coming up with this list, I ended up using problem solving skills in many of these categories over my three day weekend. We payed bills when my husband got paid, went to a wedding and figured out how much we needed to spend on gas to get there, we went shopping for dress clothes and I got mine 20% off, and we also cooked cookies for fathers day but cut the recipe in half because there wasn't many people there. Problem solving is something that will come in handy every day of our lives, its just that  a lot of time we don't even notice that we use math strategies to figure them out!