Have you ever seen a white alligator? No, not the ghost of an alligator, an actual white alligator! We aren’t telling you a tall-tale, white alligators do exist. We promise we don’t have any of these rare creatures hanging out in our math learning centers looking for tutoring in math, but we do think they’re pretty fascinating and we’ve made them the subject of this week’s word problem challenge!

So put on your thinking caps and dust off your elementary school math skills such as estimation, division, multiplication, addition and subtraction, and try to solve the following word problem. Take your time and think it over — we know you can do it! When you’re ready, look below to check your solution against ours.

See ya later, alligator!

Question: One out of every 250,000 alligators is born white. If there are an estimated 1,750,000 alligators in the state of Florida, how many of them are likely to be white?

Where in the world would you like to travel, and how might you use your math education to plan your travels? If you visit nearby locations you might travel by car and use math skills to determine distance, time, and mileage. If you fly or travel by train to faraway places you will need math to schedule flight lengths, take-off and landing times.

As a company who provides math help for kids, we’re interested in spreading great math tutoring all over the world. One way we do that is through our weekly word problem challenges, which allow you to take your tutoring in math with you wherever you go! This week’s word problem gives students the opportunity to practice elementary math skills such as time, addition, and subtraction in a real-world situation.

Go ahead and try solving the question. We know you can do it! When you're ready, look below to check your solution against ours.

Question: Tiffany arrived at the airport at 3:50 PM. Her flight was supposed to leave at 5:15 PM, but it was delayed for 2 hours. How long was Tiffany at the airport before her flight left?

Solution: The plane left 2 hours after 5:15 PM, which means it left at 7:15 PM. It is 25 minutes from 3:50 PM to 4:15 PM and then it is 3 hours from 4:15 PM to 7:15 PM, so the total time Tiffany was at the airport was 3 hours and 25 minutes.

“A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.” -Henry Adams

Teachers are the unsung heroes of our society. After parents, they are often the most influential adults in a child’s life. The lessons taught by our best teachers stay with us throughout our lives, but often it’s the passion that teachers have for their subject matter that makes the biggest impact, inspiring us in the moment, and for years to come.