Essential Questions for students (objectives):  What strategies do you use to solve complicated real-world problems?  How do you organize and explain your work?
Supplies:   video (length 1:14), note-maker

Time needed:  20 minutes +
CCSS: Model with Math, Grades 4-12  TEKS: Use a Problem-solving Model, Grades 4-12
 
Instructional Format: Video, student problem-solving, group or individual work 

Lesson Description: I made this video with the purpose of having students persevere with a problem that could have many possible solutions.  Sometimes, text book problems are so neat and tidy and this problem has many different answers.  Students will have to create some form of organizational strategy in order to handle all of the possible combinations.  This problem can be used with students of many ages – in grades 4-5, students may just start to understand that they can combine different possibilities, calculating each one.  In the upper grades, students may move to creating equations to track possibilities.  The potential for students to justify and explain their work and processes is fantastic with a problem like this!

Extension:  If we increase our rate in every scenario by cutting our time down by 1 minute, how will that effect our possible distances?