Problem Solving Strategies

Students will need to use various problem solving strategies to tackle these assignments.  The following is a list of some examples of how students might use these strategies:

“ Create sub-goals: This project might seem overwhelming to students so I have attempted to break the problem down into smaller problems.  These are sub-goals that if reached will lead to the final goal and solve the problem.

“ Working Backward:  I also expect the students will want to work backwards. They will want to see the end result. That is why I have created exemplars of various parts of this project as I want the students to see what the end result looks like. It is up to the student to decide how to get to the end and to ultimately solve the problem.

“ Brute Force – Trial & Error: The students will have to just try various attempts at increasing their social networks as there are no formulas to explain how to connect with the most people on social media sites. Some attempts will work and others will fail. It is through this process of attempting various techniques that the students will get close to the end goal.

“ Reasoning:  Some students might use reasoning as they might already be familiar with social networking sites. They might be able to use inductive reasoning to make educated guesses at how to create the largest social network. Since they have already used these social media tools and have already observed what works and what doesn’t work to create a viral message. 

“ Questioning: Students will need to question their methods to evaluate their results. How can they improve and get more contacts? What is working? What needs to be improved? What can I learn from others?

“ Content Knowledge:  Learn more information about various social media tools and gain more knowledge about how to utilize them. Then use your content knowledge to increase your social networks. The more you know about the problem and the tools to solve the problem the easier it will be.

“ Brainstorming: Students might start by listing all the possible ideas that they have. Try to focus on the quantity of ideas not the quality of the ideas. Once you have a large list of ideas you can decide on the quality of the ideas and pick the best one.

“ Model-Building: Students will be creating Facebook, Twitter, Blogger & Youtube accounts to create awareness for their endangered animal. These tools could be seen as a type of model building because students might see patterns and similarities in using these different programs. As students create a base model of social networking they might find new innovative ways to tackle the problem.