Problem Solving

The five steps to problem solving: read and re-read the problem, identify important information, choose a strategy, solve, check the answer --the six strategies to choose from: guessing and checking, using a simpler related problem, discovering patterns, drawing pictures and diagrams, making lists and charts, working backwards --the guessing and checking strategy is used to solve a problem with approximations --the using a simpler related problem strategy is used to solve a problem involving very large numbers