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Show 12 Standard-Examin- er - and Lakeside Review, Tuesday, April 10, 1990 1 Getting in line Uncle Walts birthday present Experiment with these new techniques and try brainstorming the following problem. Its your birthday. Uncle Walt, your favorite relative, is invited to your party. The good news is that he shows up. The bad news is that Uncle Walts birthday present for you is one of his latest wacky inventions. He calls it The Thing. You have no idea what to do with it. What could The Thing possibly be used for? So, after the birthday candles are blown out and all the guests have gone home, you decide its time to find some creative uses for your birthday present. Work alone or in teams to brainstorm as many different uses for The Thing as you can. Keep a list on a piece of. paper. Do a good job and Uncle Walt may hire you as an inventors apprentice! 2. Sometimes problems focus on a particular dimension: weight, age, size, distance, order of events. Such problems can be confusing to read and solve unless you draw a picture. A useful strategy for this type of problem is a linear representation. Heres an example: Betty is shorter than Joanne. Nancy is taller than Joanne. Eileen is shorter than Betty. Is Joanne taller or shorter than Eileen? SHORTER Eileen TALLER Betty Joanne Nancy in Drawing a line, labelling the opposites this case shorter and taller and placing the names at different points on the line can help sort out a problem. The answer to this problem becomes obvious: Joanne is taller than Eileen. Try solving the following problems using the linear representations provided. The answers appear on page 16. 1. Jim is five years older than Fred. Gary is four years older than Jim. Tim is two years younger than Gary. Aaron was bom 18 months succeeded Ivory in both mayorship and birth but preceded Walden in both. Gallagher preceded Ivory in both mayorship and birth. Write the names of the five mayors in order of birth. BORN LATER BORN EARLIER 3. Lisa likes to study the hardest subject first. She thinks that history is harder than English. Theres no doubt in her mind that science is easier than home economics and that English is more difficult than home economics. Which subject will Lisa study first? EASIER HARDER 4. If Rosemary and Lynda are both more athletic than Ivy, and Audrey plays fewer sports than Rosemary but more than Linda, who is the least athletic of the group? LEAST ATHLETIC after Tim. Who is the youngest? YOUNGER Although Gallagher preceded Baggs as mayor, he succeeded him in birth. Levy MOST ATHLETIC OLDER Reprinted with permission from Odyssey A Cumcutum for Tbmktna Problem Solwna Student 1986. Mastery Education Corp, Watertown. Massachusetts. Copyright Book. Hoagie baggies and other bright ideas Some inventions are not brand new, they are merely improvements, slight changes that make something work differently, hopefully better. Improvements come about when someone identifies a problem and comes up with a creative solution. Have you noticed that some dry cereals have resealable tops to keep the contents fresher longer? Now, thats an improvement. Here are some other examples: Problem When I eat hoagies, the sandwich begins to leak from the bottom once I get past the middle part. Solution! The HOAGIE BAGGIE! A food storage type of bag that slips neatly over the bottom of the sandwich and keeps all the good stuff inside until I can eat it. Problem! My room is always a mess. I hate it when company comes and I have five minutes to make the place presentable. Solution! The CLEAN SCREEN. A e photograph of what my room is supposed to look like (everything neatly put away, bed made, etc.) on a roller that pulls across the length of the room. (Fool your relatives and friends!) Challenge your invention and improvement skills with the following problems. Take your best improvement, create a name for the product and write an advertisement for it for the newspaper or radio. life-siz- Problem! Each time the cat uses the litter box, little pieces of litter get all over the floor. Solution! Problem! Whenever I read the newspaper my fingers get covered with ink. Solution! Problem! I can never find my keys in the bottom of my pocketbook or gym bag. Solution! Problem! I hate loading and unloading the dishwasher. Solution! Problem! I always run out of tape when I use the VCR to record a movie from television. Solution! Problem! I either over-wator underwater my houseplants. Either way they die. er Solutiom |