Aaron McMahon

Course Code: E3B Bachelor of Education (In-Service), ESH 120

Personal and Professional Numeracy – External.

This essay will look at mathematics and how to solve problems, strategies and an
understanding of how the end result was achieved. I asked three friends to solve the
problem and observed them doing the problem, discussing the strategies employed
and how they display the solver’s extent of understanding. The question that was
looked at was; three tired and hungry men went to sleep with a bag of apples. One
man woke up, ate 1/3 of the apples, then went back to sleep. Later a second man
woke up and ate 1/3 of the remaining apples, then went back to sleep. Finally, the
third man woke up and ate 1/3 of the remaining apples. When he was finished there
were 8 apples left. How many apples were in the bag originally? In addition I need to
create a solution that could be produced by a grade 5 student and to create a solution
that uses algebra.

When creating a solution that could be created by a grade 5 student I have looked at
the Victorian Essential Standards, which assisted me in what students in grade 5 need
to learn in the strand of mathematics. To develop a solution I have decided to use the
base ten models as this “make[s] conceptualizing percent concepts meaningful to
students and allow them to explore percentage in a familiar setting”.

Question 1a:
One man ate 9%, and another man ate 6% and the last man ate 4%
Can you find the total % out of 100%?
Hint; 1 square = 1%

1
Aaron McMahon
Course Code: E3B Bachelor of Education (In-Service), ESH 120
Personal and Professional Numeracy – External.

Question 2b:
There are three men with a bag of apples; there are 8 remaining apples in the bag.
The first man ate 9 apples; the second man ate 6 apples and the last man 4 apples
how many apples were eaten? If you add the 8 remaining apples what were the total
of the apples in the bag before any were eaten?

To create a solution that uses algebra I decided upon;

Question 1c:
9 + x + x + 8=27

Question1d:
Find the value of the pronumeral in each of the following:
x stands for the number of apples the first man ate.
y denotes the number of apples the second man ate.
z = the number of apples the last man ate
a represents the remaining apples in the bag.

To add these values together it can look like:

x + y + z + a = the total number of apples in the bag.

I asked three people to solve the problem, one was a primary school teacher, one was
an employment consultant and the last was a builder. Two came up with the same
answer and the third came up with a different solution.

The procedural knowledge of the school teacher allowed the teacher to read the
question and work out that the question needed to be worked out backwards. The
teacher had the knowledge to work this question out as she teaches mathematics and
knew how to work it out. The teacher worked out that 1/3 did not go into 8 so she
used the lowest denominator which was ½. The question now looks like thus; 8/2 =
4, the teacher then worked out 8 + 4 = 12, which meant 12 apples remained before
the third man had eaten his share which was 4. The teacher then worked out 12/2 = 6

2
Aaron McMahon
Course Code: E3B Bachelor of Education (In-Service), ESH 120
Personal and Professional Numeracy – External.

and 12 +6 = 18 and this meant that 18 apples remained before the 2nd had eaten his
share which was 6. The teacher then looked at 18/2 = 9, and 18 + 9 = 27 which
meant that the 1st man ate 9. Conceptual knowledge allowed the teacher to recognise
and understand what was being presented to her, and how to work it out. The
teachers’ conceptual knowledge allowed the teacher to progress on to the third,
second and finally the first man; working out the percent of how much each man had
eaten and how many apples remained. The teachers’ strategic and metacognitive
behaviour allowed the teacher to solve the problem and to achieve an outcome which
resulted in an affective response. The strategic behaviour was to work out many
apples were in the bag to begin with, the teacher had a general strategy in mind after
reading the question but had to work out how to use this strategy to solve the
question. The teacher used percent, addition and halves to work out the problem.

The builder looked at the question and knew the procedural knowledge was to start
from the end and to work with halves and to multiply these halves. The builder
started with the 8 remaining apples and knew 1/3 would not go into 8, so he reduced
it to ½. The builders’ conceptual knowledge was evident as he recognised and
understood how to work out the question, by halving 8 which is 4 (4 was how many
the third man ate) and multiplying by 3 which equals 12. So 12 apples remained, then
half of 12 which is 6 (the second man ate 6) and then multiply by 3 again which
equals 18, half of 18 is 9 (the first man ate 9) then you multiply 9 by 3 which is 27
and this shows us we started with 27 apples. The strategic and metacognitive
behaviour was to read the question and to halve the 8 which formed the basis that to
solve the question it was to use halves and multiply the halves by 3. There was not
much working out needed as the builder knew what needed to be done and had a
strategy to work out the question.

The employment consultant read the question aloud and said that it does not make
sense as the balance of apples = 8. If 3 people take 1/3 each as a base figure he came
up with the conceptual knowledge that 8 apples x 3 people = 24 apples in total. The
employment consultant then sat down with a calculator and decided to try another
strategy that he thought of. The new strategy looks like this; 24 apples – 1/3 = 7.99
apples, which the first man ate, then you subtract 7.99 apples from 24 and square it

3
Aaron McMahon
Course Code: E3B Bachelor of Education (In-Service), ESH 120
Personal and Professional Numeracy – External.

off to get 16.00%. Then you subtract 1/3 from 16.00% which = 5.33 apples which
the second man ate. Then you subtract 5.33% from 16.00% which leaves you with
10.67%, subtract 1/3 from 10.67% and you get 3.55% which the last man ate. When
you subtract 3.55% from 10.67% the answer is 7.12%. You than square off to the
nearest 100 points which equals 8 and 8x3 = 24.

The procedural knowledge of the employment consultant was that you could not
work out this question on paper as it did not make sense; it needed the working out of
a calculator. The employment consultant considered that the strategy to solve this
problem was with a calculator as the calculator would be more efficient in solving
out a technical puzzle.

From observing myself and others in solving this mathematic problem is that I
learned that percent can be easily solved if you have a strategy, have some idea of
what you are doing and have a procedure to solve this mathematic problem. Whilst
observing others complete this problem I decided upon that the mathematic problem
can be solved in many ways, but who has the right answer? And who is working out
the problem the right way? Is there a right or wrong way to come up with a solution?
These questions were decided by me when watching different people solve the
problem as I am not a maths teacher so how could I tell people that the answer they
decided upon was right or wrong? And the way they produced working out was right
or wrong? I had trouble working this out myself as I have had to revise my
knowledge on how to solve percent problems. I worked out that to solve percent was
to research the internet and see what help was available, when I was looking at topics
on percent I came across a solution called “Base Ten Numeration” and whilst
looking at the findings I realised that I was taught this solution in primary school and
by using this solution I now have a better understanding on how to solve percent and
I even used this strategy in my question above.

So when looking back at the question on how many apples were in the bag
originally, the answer is 27.