The challenge was to find as many ways as possible to make 100¢. The students could work alone or with a partner. They needed to organize their work. They could only use quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies.
Everybody spread out and got right to work. (One student was sent to the hall to work. One pair had to return to their seats for off-task behavior. Two of the three unfocused students did end up with a product.)
Several examples of completed work are shown here. No one found all of the possiblities and no one used a strategy for organizing their work to make sure all the answers were found. It would be an interesting followup discussion.
In an ideal world, this kind of exploration would be a normal part of the math routine. Unfortunately, I have not found a way to fully integrate it yet. But....I haven't given up!
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