How many blocks are needed for a 3 step up-and-down staircase?

Try making a table of the number of blocks needed for each numbers of steps.

Can you rearrange the blocks for each staircase to make a square pattern? How might this help?

Interactivity that takes the staircase and splits it in two vertically moving the small staircase up and around to fill in the gap and make a square. See interactivity guide image in folder \\D-babbage.educ\common\site_content\2004-May\1-1 Up and Down Staircases.