LESSON 1 – SOLVE S AND O

INTRODUCTION

The objective for this lesson on SOLVE steps S and O is, the student will learn and practice the first two steps (S and O) in the SOLVE problem-solving method.

We will have three essential questions that will be guiding our lesson. Number 1, what do the S and O in SOLVE represent? Number 2, why is it important to know what the problem is asking? And number 3, why is it important to organize the facts in a word problem?

We will begin by completing the warm-up practicing repeated addition, to prepare for the SOLVE process steps S and O in this lesson.

INTRODUCE SOLVE

SOLVE is a method that can be used to help solve word problems. We will use this problem-solving method throughout the year. There are five steps of SOLVE. Step S – Study the Problem; Step O – to Organize the Facts; Step L – to Line Up a Plan; Step V – to Verify Your Plan with Action; and Step E – to Examine Your Results.

Let’s begin by working on the first two steps of SOLVE Steps S and O for this lesson.

WORK WITH SOLVE - S STEP

Let’s start by reading the problem together. Mario loves to play basketball. He has saved fourteen dollars, but a new basketball cost twenty seven dollars. He plans to mow lawns to earn some additional money. How much money will he need to earn to buy the basketball?

As good problem solvers we should be able to understand what a problem is asking us to find. S in the SOLVE process stands to Study the Problem. In this step we will underline the question and determine what the problem is asking us to find.

Let’s look at the problem again. To Study the Problem we first need to identify where the question is located within the problem and underline the question. The question in this problem is, how much money will he need to earn to buy the basketball?

Now that we have identified where the question is located within the problem, we need to put this question in our own words in the form of a statement. The question that we underlined is: How much money will he need to earn to buy the basketball? In your own words, say what Problem one is asking us to find. It may be helpful to use the word “the” to complete your thought as it helps to not repeat the question. Now let’s put this question in our own words in the form of a statement. This problem is asking me to find the amount of money Mario needs to earn to buy the basketball.

WORK WITH SOLVE – O STEP

We will now look at Step O of the SOLVE process. “O” stands for Organize the Facts. Word problems contain facts that are easier to deal with when organized. Organizing the facts helps good problem solvers pay attention to details.

In the O Step we will identify the facts, eliminate the unnecessary facts and list the necessary facts. Let’s talk about what we mean by a fact. What is a fact? A fact is any true statement, whether it is needed to solve the problem or not. Facts can be numbers. For example, a fact could be the number of points a team scored in a game or the temperature of something hot or cold.

A fact might also explain how much something costs. There may be more than one fact in a sentence. Some facts are necessary when solving a problem, and some are not.

In order to determine if a fact is necessary, we should go back to the S step to decide if the fact is needed to determine what the problem is asking us to find.

Now let’s reread Problem one and every time you hear a fact, say “fact!” Remember that a fact is a true statement. If we have not said “fact” by the time we get to a period, then we should say “fact” at the end of the sentence. Each time we say “fact,” place a vertical line between the two facts.

Let’s take a look at the SOLVE problem. Remember that in Step O we are Organizing the Facts. And we will start by identifying the facts. Let’s do so now.

Mario loves to play basketball/ fact. He has saved fourteen dollars/fact, but a new basketball costs twenty seven dollars/fact. He plans to mow lawns to earn some additional money/fact. How much money will he need to earn to buy the basketball?

Now that we have identified the facts, we want to eliminate the unnecessary facts. These are the facts that will not help us to find the amount of money Mario needs to earn to buy the basketball. We will use an index card with a U at one end to represent unnecessary facts and a N at the other end of the card to represent the necessary facts. We will use this card to identify whether a fact is necessary or unnecessary, as we go through each of the facts that we have identified.

Let’s use your U/N index cards, and go back and reread each fact in Problem one. We need to decide if each fact is necessary to know in order to find what students are being asked to find in Step S. Show the “N” on your index card if the fact is necessary or show the “U” on the index card if the fact is unnecessary. Let’s do this now.

Mario loves to play basketball. This is a unnecessary fact to finding the amount of money Mario needs to earn to buy the basketball. There is not any information contained in this fact to help us to answer the question. So we will eliminate this fact. We will do this by crossing out the fact. He has saved fourteen dollars. This fact is necessary. It is necessary because it will help us to find the amount of money that Mario needs to earn to buy the basketball. Since we know how much he saved it will help us to find how much more he needs to earn. This is a necessary fact, so we will keep this fact. Let’s take a look at the next fact. But a new basketball costs twenty-seven dollars. This information is also necessary to finding out the amount of money that Mario needs to earn to buy the basketball. We need to know the amount of money that a new basketball costs, if we are to find the amount of money that he still needs to earn. So let’s keep this fact. He plans to mow lawns to earn some additional money. Knowing that he’s planning to mow lawns to earn addition money is an unnecessary fact. It does not help us to find the amount of money that he needs to earn to buy the basketball. So we will eliminate this fact. We will eliminate the fact by crossing it out.

Now that we have eliminated all of the unnecessary facts, we are ready to list the necessary facts. The first fact that is necessary is that Mario has saved fourteen dollars. The second fact that we need to solve this problem is to know that a basketball costs twenty seven dollars. We now have completed Step O and have organized the facts.

SOLVE FOLDABLE

We are now going to create a SOLVE foldable. You will need three sheets of paper to create your foldable. You need to stagger the three sheets of paper so that they are about an inch apart as seen here. Next you want to fold the top of the papers down toward you at approximately where the dashed line is located in the picture that you see. This should crate six colored flaps with two of the same colored flaps in the center.

On the top flap on your SOLVE foldable, copy Problem four about Ms. Smito baking cookies, and write your name in the bottom right hand corner. An example of this is seen here. The problem is, Ms. Smito is baking cookies for a class of thirty students. It takes fifteen minutes to bake a batch of twelve cookies. How long will it take to bake seven batches of cookies if each batch is baked separately? Now that you have the problem written on the top flap, we will use the rest of the flaps to identify each step in the SOLVE process.

The first flap is going to be for Step S, Study the Problem. Label the flap as you see here. Remember that in Step S we identify where the question is located within the problem and we underline the question. Then we put this question in our own words in the form of a statement. Let’s record the information that we need to do for Step S under the first flap. The first thing we do is to underline the question. Looking back at the problem let’s identify where the question is located by underlining it. The question for this problem is, how long will it take to bake seven batches of cookies if each batch is baked separately?

Now that we have identified the question we will put this question in our own words in the form of a statement. Let’s do that under the flap for Step S, Study to Problem. This problem is asking me to find the, it’s the step we’re going to be doing now. This problem is asking me to find the length of time it will take to bake seven batches of cookies. This completes Step S to Study the Problem.

Now let’s complete Step O with this SOLVE problem. Remember that Step O stands for Organize the Facts. The next flap in our SOLVE foldable will be labeled as Step O to Organize the Facts. Remember that there are three things that we do when we Organize the Facts. We identify the facts, we eliminate the unnecessary facts, and we list the necessary facts.

Under the flap for Step O, list the first thing that we need to do. We need to identify the facts. Let’s do so now with the problem. Ms. Smito is baking cookies for a class of thirty students/ fact. It takes fifteen minutes to bake a batch of twelve cookies/fact. How long will it take to bake seven batches of cookies/fact, if each batch is baked separately? Notice that in this problem there is a fact contained in the question, sometimes this happens. We identify this fact the same way that we identify all of the other facts in the problem.

Now the next step is to eliminate the unnecessary facts. Record this in the foldable. Now let’s eliminate the facts together. Remember that the problem is asking us to find the length of time that it will take to bake seven batches of cookies. Ms. Smito is baking cookies for a class of thirty students. Will knowing that there are thirty students help us to find the length of time it will take to bake seven batches of cookies? No, so we will eliminate this fact. You can cross out the fact to eliminate it. It takes fifteen minutes to bake a batch of twelve cookies. Will knowing that it takes fifteen minutes to bake a batch of twelve cookies help us to find the length of time that it will take to bake seven batches of cookies? Yes, knowing that it takes fifteen minutes to bake a batch will help. What is not important within this fact is how many cookies are in a batch. Let’s cross out twelve cookies as part of this fact so that it does not distract us from the necessary information within the fact. Our last fact is how long will it take to bake seven batches of cookies? Knowing that we are looking for seven batches of cookies is important, because it will help us to find the length of time that it takes to bake the seven batches. So we will keep this fact.

Now that we have eliminated the unnecessary facts, the last step is to list the necessary facts. Include this as a step on your SOLVE foldable. The facts that we need are, that it takes fifteen minutes to bake a batch and we need seven batches baked separately. We now have all of the information that we need in organizing facts for this problem. We will continue to work with this SOLVE foldable in the upcoming steps of SOLVE.

CLOSURE

Now let’s go back and discuss the essential questions from this lesson.

Our first question was, what do the S and O in SOLVE represent? S means “Study to Problem,” and O means “Organize the Facts.”

Our second question was, why is it important to know what the problem is asking? Without a real understanding of what the problem is asking, it may not be solved properly and the answer may be incorrect.

And our third question was, why is it important to organize the facts in a word problem? Facts are easier to deal with when organized. It is important to know if facts are necessary when answering the question being asked.