First we worked out that there would be 9 steps in total so we laid out 9 blocks in
a horizontal line
To form the next 2 steps we decreased the number of blocks by 2 and placed the
7 blocks on top of the 9 we just placed. This took the total number of blocks to
16.
The next steps were quite easy as we just decreased the number of blocks by 2
again.we worked out that we needed to place another 5 blocks on top of the 7 we just placed which took the total number of blocks to 21.
Next we added another 3 blocks to the stairs, which by now, had 3 steps up and
3 steps down. When we placed the 3 on top of the 5 we placed previously it took
the total number of blocks to 24.
Finally we placed the last block on the very top of the staircase making it 5 steps
up and 5 steps down. Something we found out in this investigation is that the
1st 2nd and last number of blocks are square numbers.