This is the figure from Mrs. Olsen’s Sidewalk Problem from the CT CAPT test 2010 (released to public). The problem has four major steps: divide the figure into common shapes, use Pythagorean Theorem to find height of the resulting triangles, find area of these shapes and compute total cost for pouring the asphalt for the sidewalk. Simply finding an entry point into this problem is a major challenge as is keeping track of the multiple steps.
Below are photos of the handouts I use to break the problem down into parts – scaffolding. Eventually the students have to learn to find an entry point and navigate the steps on their own. They learn to do this incrementally with the teacher shaping the problem-solving skills.
