Imagine you are helping your child with math. Everything is going pretty well until you see it … a story problem.
Story problems, or word problems, are math problems embedded in a story. And although in school they often include events like purchasing 67 cantalopes which may or may not be "real" life, they are the real world applications of math.
Kids and parents often hate story problems. What makes story problems so difficult? Word problems require careful analysis, and as children get older, multiple steps to figure out how to proceed. Just like real life. Very rarely do an adult's everyday problems require just the simple addition or subtraction of two numbers.
Here is an example of a 4th grade story problem.
Kadence started a lawn service business. She charged $5 an hour for mowing lawns and $12 for pulling weeds. In August she mowed lawns for 62 hours and pulled weeds for 8 hours. In September, she only worked for 20 hours. How much money did she earn in August?
The secret weapon to help children (and parents) solve word problems has four steps and uses the mnemonic (memory aiding) device called C.U.B.E.S.
Step one: Read the story problem to get the general gist.
Step two: Read the story again and follow the C.U.B.E.S. strategy.
C.U.B.E.S. stands for Circle, Underline, Box, Eliminate, Solve.
Let’s use the previous story problem as an example.
Kadence started a lawn service business. She charged $5 every hour (multiply) for mowing lawns and $12 each hour (multiply) for pulling weeds. In August she mowed lawns for 62 hours and pulled weeds for 8 hours (Add total for weeding and mowing). In September, she only worked for 20 hours. How much money did she earn in August?
Step three: Solve the problem. Be sure to label everything. A lot of confusion and mistakes occur when children don’t use labels. In the above problem it would look like this.
$5 x 62 hours = $310 for mowing the lawn in August.
12 x 8 = $72 for pulling weeds in August.
$72 + $310= $382 for pulling weeds and mowing the lawn in August.
Step four: Double check that the answer makes sense and answers the question.
Give C.U.B.E.S. a try the next time you encounter a scary looking story problem, just remember Circle, Underline, Box, Eliminate, and Solve.
For more math secret weapons, give Suzie a call at Mathnasium of Littleton. She helps children develop their own math secret weapons! 303-979-9077
This article was written by and owned by Cuttlefish Copywriting. It is copyright protected. Mathnasium of Littleton has permission to use it. Other Mathnasium locations should contact Heather at [email protected] or www.cuttlefishcopywriting.com before using it.
