Test solutions you brainstormed | Students Compute like Computers to Solve Real Problems (Lesson 6 of 7) | K-2

Students will be able to:
1. Test and evaluate whether a brainstormed solution to a problem addresses actually solves it!

This is a continuation of “Students Compute like Computers to Solve Real Problems – Part 5 | K-2” (but it can still be presented individually)

Materials Needed

Before this activity, teacher should consolidate and eliminate duplicates in digital collaboration board that students brainstormed solutions in for the main example (see Part 5)
Digital Board (padlet) with brainstormed ideas from Part 5 of “Students Compute like Computers to solve Real Problems”
Teacher should be prepared to share the consolidated and reduced set of solutions in the digital collaboration board
Google Slides Interactive Activity Set
Anchor chart for “Critical questions to ask yourself when testing your solution”
- You’ll build it out (continue reading in instructional idea)

Think-Pair-Share:
- “After thinking of different ideas for solving a problem you find, how do you know if any of those ideas are actually good? In other words, how do you know if any of your ideas will actually solve your problem?”
Exemplar Answer:
- I try them all until one of them solves the problem
- OR: I try them out in my head and think if the problem is solved”
Push Thinking:
- If you tried them out all to see which one worked, is there a way you could try only the solution that worked? And not all the others that didn’t?”
Scaffold:
- “What do you do you think about when trying to find a shoe that fits your foot?”
  - I have to try some on to see if they fit
- “If you find one that fits, how do you find another one that fits without needed to try on other shoes?”
  - I look for the size of the shoe and only look for shoes with the same size
- Give background information on shoe sizes if they need it

We continue to ask the question, ‘What steps do computers take to analyze numerical information and find problems that we can solve?’
“Today, we ask ourselves, “How do we determine if a solution is good or bad?”
- We will learn the last step computers take: Test and evaluate a brainstormed solution”

Numerical – made up of numbers only
Situation – an event
Data – information that is usually made up of numbers only (numerical)
Bar Graph – a picture that represents our numerical data
Solution – how a problem is fixed
Brainstorm – providing ideas and ways of solving a problem
Test – ask specific questions about a brainstormed solution (new)
Evaluate – review the results of the test and determine if the solution fixes the problem (new)

Say:

“Now, our big problem was, ‘Students want 2 more green marbles than the teacher has to give'” (google slide #7)
“Last lesson, we brainstormed solutions to our problem with a partner”
- Share a digital board (as anchor chart) with the potential solutions students have brainstormed from last activity
“Today, we are going to answer, “How do we determine if a solution is good or bad?”
- We determine if a solution is good or bad “by testing and evaluating our solutions!”
Define Key Terms
- “Test” means that we ask specific questions about a brainstormed solution
- “Evaluate” means look at the answers to our test questions and decide if the solution fixes the problem

[Here, you guide students to identify the key questions that students must ask to test their solutions.]
[Make sure you have an anchor chart available to write down key questions students should ask themselves to test their solution]
Model for students how they break down the key elements to their problem with a similar, example problem statement (make sure to write out the examples on an anchor chart for students to reference (use the organizer on google slide #9 to model for kids)
- Example:
  - Problem statement: “A group of dogs want 4 more big dog treats than their owners have to give”
  - Brainstormed Solutions:
    - the owners can buy 4 more big treats to give the dogs
    - the owners should look for more treats in the house
- Teacher Model with Think Aloud:
  - Brainstorm 1: The owners can by 4 more big treats to give the dogs
    - questions to ask out loud and respond out loud:
      - Does the solution solve 4 missing big treats? –> Yes, dogs get the 4 missing big treats
  - Brainstorm 2: the owners should look for more treats in the house
    - questions to ask out loud and respond out loud:
      - Does the solution solve 4 missing big treats? –> No, because what if they look and don’t find any. Plus, they already looked.

Think-Pair-Share: Have students reflect on why Solution 1 was a yes and why Solution 2 was a no
- Students Name and See:
  - Solution 1 was a yes because it added 4 more of the right treats for the dogs
  - Solution 2 was a no because it was unclear if the owners could find 4 more treats
Check for understanding
Stamp
- repeat exemplar answers, once students have arrived to them themselves

Students should have already have:
- have already identified the problem in google slide #8
- brainstormed at least 2 solutions in google slide #8
Students should:
- open up to their brainstormed solutions
- independently think about whether their solution solves their problem
- move either a YES or a NO underneath each brainstormed solution of theirs (google slide #10)
- decide which solution they should choose