Fencing Task
Ms. Browns class will raise rabbits for their spring science fair. They have 24 feet of fencing
with which to build a rectangular rabbit pen to keep the rabbits.
a. If Ms. Browns students want their rabbits to have as much room as possible, how long
would each of the sides of the pen be?
b. How long would each of the sides of the pen be if they had only 16 feet of fencing?
c. How would you go about determining the pen with the most room for any given amount of
fencing? Organize your works so that someone else who reads it will understand it.
Homework
How To Do The Mathematics Homework: It will be assigned regularly. These problems will
incorporate the knowledge of elementary school mathematics. The intent is that this homework will
engage you in using mathematics language, justifying claims and solutions and developing and
comparing representations; similar to what you would expect your future students to do. Additionally, the
process will help you to reflect on thinking and doing mathematics.
There are a number of steps either written out or not that can be followed – these are only here as a
guide to get you thinking about the problems and to help you work through the problems and present your
thinking.
I. Write a concise restatement of the problem in your own words. Think about what you are given
in the problem, what you know about the problem and what you are trying to figure out.
2. Present your solution strategies and answers in a clear and organized fashion. Do not just turn in
scribbles or scratch work.
3. In presenting your solution strategies: explain in detail, what you did to solve the problem.
4. Use pictures, manipulatives, charts, and/or graphs to help explain your thinking and move along
to a solution.
5. Identify and describe any patterns that you discovered in the problem. Even if you think they
might not help you towards a solution – it may be helpful to write them down.
6. Provide a justification for your solution. That is, explain why your solution makes sense.
7. Discuss what worked, what didn’t work and what you did when you got stuck. Did you
consult anyone or research anything while working on this problem? What did you find
out or learn from this problem that you didn’t think about before? (This is your
reflection.)
You do not need to follow each step for every homework assignment as some homework may gear itself
to finding patterns while another may not. The process of your thinking is important.