PROBLEM

SOLVING
CHINO C. PIJO, MAED
Course Instructor
PIT Tabango
Tabango, Leye
 Let’s start with this!

What is your
understanding about
problem solving?
 PROBLEM SOLVING
In cognitive psychology, it
refers to the mental process that
people go through to discover,
analyse, and solve problems.
 PROBLEM SOLVING
Hungarian mathematicial George
Polya (1877-1985) defined it as an
act to find way out of difficulty, find
a way around an obstacle, find a
way where none is known, and
attain a desired end that is not
immediately attainable by direct
means.
 Common Problem Solving
Strategies
Heuristics are procedures or
strategies that do not guarantee
a solution to a problem but
provide a more highly probable
method for discovering the
solution to a problem.
 Partial List of Problem Solving
Strategies
1. Working Backwards
2. Guess and Check
3. Make a Diagram
4. Make a List
5. Look for a Pattern
 Partial List of Problem Solving
Strategies
6. Divide and Conquer
7. Solve a Simpler Problem
8. Act it Out
9. Adopting a different point of
view
 Polya’s Problem Solving
Strategy
1. Understanding the problem
2. Devising a Plan
3. Carrying out the Plan
4. Looking Back
 Try me!
In three bowling games, Lea
scored 138, 141, and 144.
What score will she need in a
fourth game in order to have
an average score of 145 for
all four games?
Solution:
Understanding the Problem:
Lea scored 138, 141, and
144 in three games. The
average score of the four
games is 145. What should be
the fourth score?
Solution:
Devise a plan:
We can easily solve this by
algebra.
Let x be the required score.
 Solution:
Carrying out the plan:
 

Since the average score is 145, we

have

138+141+144+x=4*145
423+x=580
X=580-423
X= 157
Solution:
Looking Back:
Computing the average of
138, 141, 144, and 157 yields
to 145. Thus, we get the
correct answer.
Solution:
Final answer!
Lea needs to score 157 on
the fourth game to have an
average score of 145 in all
four games.
Help me!

Find 2 consecutive
odd numbers whose
sum is 84.
 Seb went to the car dealer to buy a car.
He wanted the same car that his girlfriend
Vivian had bought the day before, which
had a sticker price of Php750,000. The
salesman said he could give a discount and
offered Seb a significantly reduced price.
But Seb knew that Vivian received a 30%
discount, and the salesman was offering
him only 20% discount.
 When he pointed out that his friend had
received a 30% discount the day before,
the salesman took another 10% of the 20%
discounted price. Seb was satisfied with
the new price and bought the car, thinking
that he had paid the same price as Vivian.
Was he right? Did they both pay the same
price?
Help me!
A man died and left the
following instruction for his
fortune, half to his wife, 1/7 of
what was left went to his son,
2/3 of what was left went to his
butler, and the man’s pet pig got
the remaining 100,000 pesos.
How much money did the man
leave behind altogether.
Help me!
At a certain sports club, 35
people swim, 24 play tennis, and
27 jog. Of these people, 12
swims and play tennis, 19 play
tennis and jog, and 13 jog and
swim. Nine people do all three
activities. How many members
are there altogether?
Have a nice
day!