As part of an intervention group, we were a little confused to start off with - we didn't realise that the question was asking us to split the money into four bags so that the bags' totals could be combined to make any value up to 15p. Once we worked this out we wrote the vales 1p to 15p down the side of the page and tried to find a system to solving the problem.
1p = this was easy, it had to be made with a bag with 1p in it!
2p = this could be made by another bag having 1p in it, or a second bag having 2p in it. We went for the latter because it stopped us using up our bags too quickly!
3p = this was also easy: 1p+2p
4p = We could either have another 1p or 2p bag, or a new 4p bag. We used the 4p bag.
At this point we spotted a pattern - 1p, 2p, 4p... would the next bag contain 8p?
5p = 4p+1p
6p = 4p+2p
7p = 4p+2p+1p
8p = We stuck to our prediction and put 8p in the final bag!
9p = 8p+1p
10p = 8p+2p
11p = 8p+2p+1p
12p = 8p +4p
13p = 8p+4p+1p
14p = 8p+4p+2p
15p = 8p+4p+2p+1p
We thought that if the pattern was continued, the next bag should contain 16p (making the total value 29p).
We wondered if this would be a better system for the values of coins; however, we realised that the values we used help us add up the numbers mentally much faster and make finding change easier!
James, Elliot, Freddie, Anna, Orla and Oliver