{"id":737,"date":"2013-10-04T13:15:34","date_gmt":"2013-10-04T13:15:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kidsengineer.com\/?p=737"},"modified":"2013-10-04T14:44:20","modified_gmt":"2013-10-04T14:44:20","slug":"4-color-problem-case-study-results","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kidsengineer.com\/?p=737","title":{"rendered":"4 Color Problem Case Study Results"},"content":{"rendered":"

I recently completed a exploratory research project that examined how learners respond to a difficult but motivating math problem.\u00a0\u00a0 I did a small case study, which compared adult math experts, advanced math students (one grade 1 and two grade 4), and two normal grade 4 math students.\u00a0 The problem is a famous problem from discrete mathematics and computer science called the map coloring problem:\u00a0 what is the least amount of colors needed to color in any arbitrary map such that no two neighbors (who share a side) have the same color?\u00a0 Neighbors that only share a point can have the same color.<\/p>\n

I found that there were not significant differences in strategies between learners.\u00a0 The adult learners were more able to articulate their strategies.\u00a0 On the other hand, young students were much more motivated to work on the problem when they were told that no one had ever found a five color map before.\u00a0 (A five-color map would require<\/b> 5 colors.)<\/p>\n

I examined the five color map attempts of one of the student experts in detail.\u00a0 This student, without prompting, produced over thirty attempted 5 color maps over several months.\u00a0 When I looked at the progression of this map attempts, I found an interested combination of strategies.\u00a0 He combined old strategies with new strategies in different combinations in his attempts.\u00a0 See if you can color the example below with only 4 colors.\u00a0 Further research is needed to:\u00a0 investigate differences between students in this process, further analyze and classify the progression of ideas and knowledge, and determine the factors that make this problem so motivating.\u00a0 One thing is clear:\u00a0 the adaptation of rich mathematical problems is a highly motivating way to promote deep mathematical thinking and conceptual understanding with elementary students.<\/p>\n

For more information, see:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/kidsengineer.com\/?p=620<\/a> Video of students working the problem<\/p>\n

https:\/\/kidsengineer.com\/?p=612<\/a> Study conclusions<\/p>\n

http:\/\/csunplugged.org\/<\/a> Web site with other rich computer science lessons for kids<\/p>\n

\"5<\/a>

5 Color Map Attempt #30 – Grade 1 Math Expert With Some Strategies Labelled<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I recently completed a exploratory research project that examined how learners respond to a difficult but motivating math problem.\u00a0\u00a0 I did a small case study, which compared adult math experts, advanced math students (one grade 1 and two grade 4), … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,11,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-childdevelop","category-research","category-teaching"],"yoast_head":"\n4 Color Problem Case Study Results - Kids Engineer!<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/kidsengineer.com\/?p=737\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"4 Color Problem Case Study Results - 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