Miss Kelly's Classroom
Deirdre Kelly, M.Ed., NBCT
Gifted Education Mentor Teacher Technology Integration
Problem Solving
Children solve, tend to, and negotiate problems all day long… even at a young age, they can be viewed as skilled problem solvers! As in much of education, the effort becomes an effort of refining skills that life has already begun to impart.
The Problem Solving Process:
There are a variety of recognized problem solving processes. The CPS method is one of the most popular. The FPS method incorporates trends, extrapolations, predictions, and probabilities. Over the years, I have tweaked the traditional CPS method to something I felt was a bit more kid-friendly. Here's the Miss Kelly Method:
Problems We’ve Tackled
Beirut Trash Problem
Bear in Backyard Kiddie Pool
Invasive Species
Blueberry Thieves in Maine
Great Pacific Garbage Patch
Drones Land on White House Lawn
Chocolate Shortage
Too Much Snow
Real World and Simulated Problems:
Best Practices in problem solving tell us that real problems are better than realistic problems. Real problems behave differently that those that are simulated. They tend to be more complex, more contextual, and more difficult to solve. While I’m a fan of real world problems, I see a place for simulated problems as well. There are plenty of real world problems that aren’t age-appropriate for elementary aged learners. The stubbornness and complexity of real world problems can sometimes get in the way for novice problem solvers. My best practice? Use both – real world and simulated problems – being careful to be age-appropriate as in all things.
Evaluating Problem Solving:
Here are a few of the tools we use for evaluating our efforts.
Problem Solving Activiites from Class - Older Content
The Sinking City of Venice -
The city of Venice is a unique and valuable place. Using a documentary video, we studied the problems Venice is facing and the many solutions the Venetians are deliberating. Using real world problems to learn about problem solving is a great wy to become better problem solvers!
Apollo XIII -
If we want to become good problem solvers, we need to study good problem solvers! The Apollo XIII story is filled with examples of excellent problem solving strategies!
Problem Solving in Literature -
We borrowed problems from our favorite pieces of literature in order to explore the solution-finding and acceptance-finding steps in the problem solving process.
Problem Families: Rabbit Stew -
One of the tricky things about complex problems is that they rarely travel alone. They bring with them a whole collection of related problems that can get in the way of trying to focus on a main problem. Being able to recognize Problem Families is an important part of being a good problem solver. We practiced this skill by looking for problems which might be hidden inside situations.
Problem Solving Exploration -
Problem solving took front and center this week, in preparation for our upcoming long-term project. After practicing the whole problem solving process on one problem, we fine-tuned some of our thinking skills while working on several smaller problems. (Problem pages not scanned due to copyright. Available from Practice Problems for
Creative Problem Solving, D. Treffinger, Prufrock Press.)
How Will I Know If I Did A Good Job Solving This Problem? - Problem Solving Matrix
Being able to look at our own work with a fair critical eye is an important part of being a good thinker and a good worker. We took some time this week to evaluate how we did on our first problem solving task of the year. (Intermediate)
A Problem-Solving Check-Up -
Like when the doctor measure's our height, Miss Kelly measure's our problem solving style at the start of each school year. NASA and The Dakotas provided us with problems in need of solving. (Intermediate)
Problems and Problem Solvers: The Mars Rover Mission -
A Discovery Channel documentary following the development of the Mars Rovers gave us a great opportunity to study problems and problem solvers!
A one-page-per-step of the problem solving process.
The Bronx Zoo announced this week that it need to take serious action due to recent budget cuts. After gathering information, we generated ideas and then evaluated them to see which idea might be the most beneficial. Finally, we compared our ideas to the actual solutions proposed by the zoo.
This favorite activity is actually a collecting of think-tivities based on a Discovery Channel documentary on the problems created when animals invade human areas (or is it the other way around?). We also took some time to consider one of the problems from multiple perspectives. Thinking Skills sure do come in handy when animals behave badly!
Helping the island citizens of The Empire of Vladinog and The Land of Flogum will require us to use our problem solving skills! A Decision Making Matrix can help us make thoughtful decisions!
~ Version # 2- Vladinog & Flogum (ActivInspire Flipchart) Studying and solving problems has never been so fun - or so PURPLE! The imaginary lands of Vladinog and Flogum have a problem... a few of them actually! We came to their rescue this week by using our creative thinking skills to help them solve their problems! [Saved as PDF: black/white images; Saved as PDF: blank version]
As we begin learning about becoming good problem solvers, we took some time to think about what a problem actually is. Imitating the "readers" who helped to create the Oxford English Dictionary, we created definitions for the word "problem"! After discussing what a problem actually is, we put on our detective hats and searched the book Never Mail an Elephant for problems in need of solutions!
The Plight of the Piping Plovers -
The poor, poor Piping Plovers and the problems they present! We learned about the Piping Plovers (and their problems) this week by completing a collection of critical and creative thinking tasks.
Update: As this activity has been used over the years, some activities have been added/modified:
- This week used a real world problem to help us practice skills and strategies which will help us to be thorough and thoughtful problem solvers! In order to understand the problem, we used tables from a National Park Service report, to practice data analysis and drawing conclusions!
Problem Solving: Traffic in Samoa -
The tiny island nation of Samoa has a problem! Their cars are going the wrong way! What will happen when a whole country starts driving on the wrong side of the road?! Who will have opinions about this situation? How will those opinions be different from one another? We used this real world problem to learn more about how there can be multiple perspectives to one problem!
The Lake Eola Fountain -
The Lake Eola Fountain has a problem! After taking notes from articles about the problem and a web-video about the history of the fountain, we discussed the problem and the solutions the city is considering. Looking at problems from many perspectives is one of the skills of good problem solvers. Monday and Tuesday classes took a poll home to see how other people were feeling about the problem. We even made predictions about what we think might happen next (which we've sealed and will open on our last day together)!
Change Makers: Decision Making Matrix -
As we begin to consider the Change Makers of the world, we'll be using a Decision Making Matrix to help us choose who it is we wish to study!
A Super Problem at the Super Bowl - There was a pretty big problem at the Super Bowl this weekend! Hundreds of people who had tickets were not allowed to see the game as they had hoped. What happened? Why did it happen? What will they do about it? How will they keep it from happening again? We generated questions and hypotheses about this Super Problem, and then used our super problem solving skills to find our own solutions before reading news articles to find out the official solutions!
Problem Analysis & Main Idea:
US Post Office Problem (3rd grade version) - The US Post Office has a big problem! Declining earnings and use means that they're scrambling for a way to spend less and earn more! How can we help! By using the Problem Solving steps, of course! But first, we need to analyze the problem in order to understand it well. We'll also practice identifying the main idea of reading passages at the same time! (Version with titles.)
French Traffic Problem (3rd grade version) -
There's a big problem in France. Two one-way roads heading straight at each other? Wow. That sure is a big problem. We took our problem solving steps out for a nice long walk on this problem. We walked through each step of the problem solving process and learned about what the most common mistakes are that problem solvers some times make when solving complex problems.
Blockbuster has a big problem! After learning some of the basics about their company, we read an article about their current problem. We then tried out our problem solving skills to see what kinds of solutions we could create and how we might be able to judge our solutions to see which of them were the best ones!
Problem Solving: India's Coconut Challenge -
After reading about and discussing India's current coconut problem, we used a Decision Making Matrix to select our best solution before making diagrams and sharing them with each other!
The head-honcho at Shopalot, Inc. has a problem. Our job was to use the article and data they provided to design a new shopping cart which would solve as many of the problems they were having as possible!
The Pumpkin Problem & The Pumpkin Problem, JR. -
No pumpkin pie this year? Oh no! We're using our information management skills to get a handle on this real world problem! Our problem solving skills got a workout on this complex problem! Third graders took some extra time to understand the perspectives of some of the people involved in this very orangey problem!
Problem Solving: Problems in Lampedusa -
Lampedusa, a tiny island between Africa and Italy has company - lots of company! We learned more about map reading, cause and effect, and immigration as we practiced using our problems solving skills.
Problem Solving: Museums & Libraries:
~ Day One - After making predictions about the contents of our headlined articles, we read about problems begin faced by museums and libraries, we gathered information (note taking) and then used graphic organizers to help us sort-out and consider these problem-filled situations.
The Articles:
Dinosaur Museum in Laramie Closing (3rd),
Lincoln Museum Doors to Close at End of June (3rd),
Camden, NJ Threatens to Permanently Close its Libraries (3rd),
Britain Faces Closing the Book on Libraries (3rd)
Graphic Organizers: Decision Making Matrix, Multiple Perspectives Map, Compare & Contrast Chart
~ Day Two - Museums & Libraries - On Day Two, we considered how museums and libraries of the future might solve their problems by creating a tool that they might use... some day soon!
Problem Solving: Camels & Gasoline -
As an end-of-the-year-show-us-what-you-can-do activity, we tackled our final problem solving activities this week. A problem with camels in Australia and a problem with gasoline in Los Angeles served up a few complex real world problems for us to figure out and solve!
Articles:
Gas Problem
Background Info: Camels in Australia, Buying Gas (ActivInspire Flipcharts)
Problem Solving: Italy's Big Problem:
Italy has a huge problem and we're ready to help - but first we'll need to understand the vocabulary we'll need to know in order to understand the details of the problem. Once we have the details, we'll have to generate ideas! In order to figure out which solution will work the best, we'll do a little role playing. Finally, we'll read an article to learn how Filettino, a tiny town of 550 people solved their really big problem!
Problem Solving: Bronx Zoo (4th & 5th) (3rd):
The Bronx Zoo is firing its animals?! Are they REALLY?! We read about this interesting real world problem and used our problem solving skills to try to come up with solutions that might help!