STUDENT CLASSROOM ACTIVITY - TOWERS FOUR-HIGH

You will need a total of 100 Unifix (or similar) Cubes in two colours (50 blocks of each colour) to build towers.

• Record the date and the title 'Towers 4 high' on a clean page in your journal (write your name at the top of the page if you are sharing or not using your own journal).

GETTING STARTED

Solve this 'towers' problem below for yourself and develop a way to convince others that you have found all possible towers - that there are no more and no less:

• Using only two colours of cubes, make as many different-looking towers as possible, each exactly four cubes high.
• Each tower must always point up, with the little knob on top.

• Write down your prediction of the number of towers you can build which are different.
• Draw a a circle around the number of towers that you have predicted.

• Start building your towers and the find a way to convince yourself and others (prove) that you have found all possible towers four cubes high and that they are all different.

WHEN YOU HAVE FINISHED

• Write down the number of towers you can build which are different.
• Draw a square around the number of towers that you found.

Keep a record of your solution, including your justifications/proof, to share during the next workshop.

• Were your predictions correct?
• What did you used to think?
• What do you think now?