Possible word problems and cultural discussions *All of these problems are actual problems seen on tests or quizzes

in schools in the Midwest. Question: A billboard is eight feet longer than twice the width. If the area is 714 sq ft, find the dimensions. Possible problems: feet are a non-metric unit of measurement that many countries are unfamiliar with. Some places do not have billboards or do not call them this, so students may not understand that the problem is asking them about a rectangle. Dimensions could be problematic, as students may not understand that dimensions refers to length and width. Question: Mara and Jos are three meters tall when you add their heights together. Mara is 46 centimeters taller than Jos. How tall are they? Possible problems: students may not know that there are 100 centimeters in a meter. Students may also have difficulty because the set up of this problem is unrealistic. It is unlikely anyone would know how tall the two are together unless they knew already how tall each is. Similarly, the final question How tall are they? does not specify that the students are to find each individuals height. Therefore, 3 meters would be an adequate answer as well. Question: If Yusheng needs 20 liters of a 20% saline solution, but he only has 11% and 37% saline solutions available, how much of each should he mix together to obtain the desired solution? Possible problems: if students do not know what a solution is, they will struggle setting up this problem. It is also unlikely that Yusheng will have an 11% or 37% saline solution sitting around, making this a less realistic problem. Further, students may not understand that Yusheng is a name, and so they may be uncertain as to this words function in the problem. Lastly, the phrase obtain the desired solution is unnecessarily wordy. Obtain and desired are more complex words, perhaps leading students to struggle with the language, not the math itself. Question: Emma has to finish her chores before her cheerleading practice. She has two hours before she has to leave, and she has to clean her room, fill the dishwasher, and vacuum the living room. If it takes her twice as long to clean her room as it does for her to vacuum the living room, and it takes her 50% more time to vacuum the living room as it does for her to fill the dishwasher, how much time should Emma spend on each chore? Possible problems: this problem is unrealistic for students who are not middle or upper class, which makes it hard for students to picture the problem or see math as useful in their real world. Further, the presentation of relationships between the chores is long, involved, and somewhat confusing, switching between relationship words (like twice) and percents (like 50%).