Which quadratic?
Problem
This is one of a series of problems designed to develop learners' team working skills. Other tasks in the series can be found by going to this article.
What are you aiming to do?
For the task:
As a team:
- asking questions - making sense of your own understanding
- being concise
- listening
- reflecting on what has been said.
Getting started
Tackling the problem
Rules
- Choose someone on the team to keep track of the number of questions - this might be the observer.
- The person who has been chosen to try to find the unknown function chooses a card and hands it to the rest of the team without looking at it.
- The person trying to find the function can ask up to 8 questions.
- When a question has been asked, each of the other members of the team writes "Yes" or "No" on their sheet of paper. If they all agree one person gives the answer.
- If the team do not agree, they will need to confer - preferably out of earshot of the person trying to find the function. Once in agreement, one person gives the answer.
- The person trying to find the unknown can have at most two attempts at guessing what is on the card before the task ends. Each guess counts as one of the questions.
- The team can offer the hint "Cold" or "Warm" or "Hot" if the first guess is incorrect.
Observer guidelines
- Keep track of the number of questions
- Make a note of questions you thought were effective and why
- Note when the team worked well together.
Teachers' Resources
Why do this problem?
This task aims to encourage learners to develop their ability to communicate their reasoning and to frame and ask questions. This task requires learners to make sense of their own understanding, be concise, listen and reflect on what has been said. This is one of a series of problems designed to develop learners' team working skills. Other tasks in the series can be found by going to this article.
This task also supports the development of knowledge of transforming graphs.
Possible approach
Using a fifth person as an observer means that feedback can be very specific and works well either using another learner or an adult.
Here are the function cards.
Give the teams plenty of time to do the task, allowing every member of the team to take the role of trying to find the unknown.
When teams have finished working on the task it is important that they spend time discussing in groups, and then as a whole class, how well they worked as a team. They can consider what they have learned from the experience and what they would do differently next time, particularly in terms of how to listen to each other and ensure that all members of the team participate. Your own
observations, as well as those of observers might inform the discussions.
Finish the session by listing the most useful questions that arose whilst learners did the task and discuss why they were so effective.
Key questions
- Was there a question that proved really useful in identifying the function?
- How well did you listen to each other in your team?
- How did you ensure that everyone had a chance to contribute?
Possible extension
Possible support
Reduce the number of cards by focussing on cards with a particular form of transformation, such as translation along the x axis. Learners may like to try one of the other 'What am I?' tasks, which can be found by going to this article.