Homework 911

Have you seen this YouTube video that's been circulating on the world-wide-web for the last six months??



Yeah, well, we have our own personal homework hotline. Here's an excerpt from an email my 5th-grade son sent to his grandmother, a former math teacher, this week...

Dear Mimi,

This is my problem of the week. We're all stumped. Can you help?

Carmine and her sister are selling raffle tickets for the swim team at the local supermarket. Carmine notices that about one person out of every fifteen who walk by their table stops for more information. Of the people who stop, approximately two thirds of them buy a $2 ticket. At the end of two hours, Carmine finds that they have sold $88 worth of tickets. Approximately how many people walked by their table each hour?

Even my dad is lost on this one. If you don't know, that's o.k. Tell Papa he can help you. Thank you.

Love,
Will


Will sent this email because his 5th grade mind couldn't wrap itself around the problem to be solved, and honestly, it made my head hurt so bad that I wanted to take two Tylenol PM and go to bed. It's 5th grade math for crying out loud!

Will has a POW (Problem of the Week) that he brings home every Monday. He has until Friday to turn it in, and this is not the first time that John and I have been stumped. To her credit, Will's teacher is not as interested in them getting the answer correct as she is in seeing their problem-solving strategy. In fact, she requires them to write a detailed explanation of how they approached the problem, and the steps involved in solving it. And believe me, there were many steps required to solve this one. Many steps that involved algebra. And justsoyouknow, I made my first and only "C" in algebra.

Will did a great job of tackling it, and once John and I knew the answer (thank you so much, Mimi!) we were able to point him in the right direction.

So...anyone out there bored enough to give the POW a go??? Or does it make your head hurt as much as it does mine?