Sometimes it is easier to work collaboratively with other students to solve a math problem.

Here are some examples of students working collaboratively to solve math problems.

Tom and Sally are working on the following math problem.
	Mary earns $20 baby-sitting and $5 making cookies.  She spends $8 at the store.  How much money does she have left?

Tom says there is $13, but Sally disagrees. 
 
Sally explains to Tom how she solved the problem.
First she added the money Mary made, $20 + $5 = $25. 
Then she subtracted the amount she spent from the amount she made.

$25 - $8 = $17
Mary has $17 left. 

This example helped Tom to understand how his answer was incorrect.

Faith and Frank are discussing the following problem.
	Donna's math test scores are 85, 87, 95, 88, and 90. What is the range and  mean of her scores?

Faith says that Donna's range is 10 and her mean is 89, but Frank is not sure. 
 
Faith shows Frank how she solved the problem.

To find the range, line the numbers in order from least to greatest and then subtract the smallest number from the largest number. The mean is the average. To find mean, find the sum of the data and divide by the number of values in that set.

85, 87, 88, 90, 95

Range: 95-85 = 10

Mean: 85+87+ 88+ 90+ 95=445

445/5 = 89

This example helped Frank to understand that the range of Donna's math scores equaled 10 and the mean was 89.

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Remember: It is helpful to collaborate with others to solve problems.