High Cognitive Demand Questions: 3rd Grade Multiplication and Division

 

High Cognitive Demand Questions

High Cognitive Demand Questions can be defined as those questions that promote:

1) connecting mathematical procedures 

2) "doing math"

In and effort to prepare for my future students, I felt it necessary to find and create with a few high cognitive demand questions for 3rd graders on multiplication and division.

Question 1:

Decide if the following word problems can be solved using multiplication or division. Explain your thinking. Then solve each problem and draw an illustration explaining your thinking.

1. Bill is making mashed potatoes. The recipe says you need 5 minutes for every pound of potatoes you are cooking. How many minutes will it take for Liam to cook 12 pounds of potatoes?
2. Mel is designing cards. She has 4 different colors of paper and 7 different pictures she can glue on the paper. How many different card designs can she make using one color of paper and one picture

Question 2:

Aidan is bringing cookies to his class for his birthday. He wants each of his classmates to receive 3 cookies. He made four dozen cookies. How many classmates does Aidan have (not including himself)?

Please solve the problem, explain how you got your answer and create a mathematical equation for the word problem.

Question 3:

Please use the below equation to create a word problem, solve the word problem and explain using symbols how you got your answer.

8 * __ = 48

Reflection

Exploring High Cognitive Demand Questions really helped my overall goal of implementing effective teaching. As an educator it is important for us to teach beyond memorization and beyond procedures. We need to help students make connections between mathematical procedures and really "do math." This will deepen the students understanding of the topic and help them move forward in their mathematical education.

Content Standard

3.OA.A.3. Use multiplication and division within 100 to solve word problems in situations involving equal groups, arrays, and measurement quantities, e.g., by using drawings and equations with a symbol for the unknown number to represent the problem.

Sources Used

Illustrative Mathematics