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'Home City' printed from https://nrich.maths.org/
Why do this
problem?
This problem encourages logical thinking and can also be used
to discuss different ways of representing information.
Possible approach
Some teachers put a question on the board for the children to
think about as they arrive in the classroom at the beginning of the
day or lesson, and this question could be used in this way.
Give the children a chance to work in pairs. Working in pairs
means that children can check the meaning of the language, which is
one of the most problematic parts of this question, with a partner.
Invite pairs of children who think they have a solution to come and
talk about their methods and if possible record it on the board.
The sentence that is likely to give the most problem is 'Sheng
lives in the city ...' and if no-one has done so, you may want to
explore what this actually means taking one example at a time and
working through it. If Sheng lives in Manchester then who lives in
Toronto? Mohamed. And that would mean ...
Working through each possibility leads to the realisation that
there are two possible answers. This is an important lesson.
There are likely to be several different ways of representing
the information in pictures/table etc. Some children may have seen
logic problems in books and magazines, and this is one visual way
of recording the given information:
|
Manchester |
Sydney |
Toronto |
Bahrain |
Mohamed |
|
|
|
|
Sheng |
|
|
|
|
Tanya |
|
|
|
|
Bharat |
|
|
|
|
You could suggest this if none of the children do.
Key questions
Is there only one solution?
How do you know?
Do you think one way of solving this was better than the
others? Why?
Possible extension
Children could be challenged to make up their own logic table
and questions to go with it. To make up questions so that there is
only one answer is challenging - probably more so than answering
the original question.