Outnumbered

A Maths Starter of The Day

Which group of four numbers, arranged in a square, has the largest total?

  A B C D E F G H I J
1 7 1 3 2 3 10 8 10 6 3
2 9 2 7 3 8 7 2 10 4 3
3 8 6 6 6 9 6 1 1 6 8
4 1 2 5 2 8 4 8 8 1 6
5 9 4 1 5 4 1 5 2 1 6
6 6 4 8 1 9 2 8 9 4 4

Which group of four numbers, arranged in a square, has the smallest total?

 

 


Topics: Starter | Arithmetic | Mental Methods

  • Transum,
  •  
  • Without using pen and paper, completely relying on your mental abilities, how would you, as a teacher, work on this challenge? There are buttons below to change the range of numbers used in the grid. Does your strategy work for larger numbers too? This type of mental exercise builds abilities to cope with multi-step mathematical solutions required for more complex problems.

How did you use this starter? Can you suggest how teachers could present or develop this resource? Do you have any comments? It is always useful to receive feedback and helps make this free resource even more useful for Maths teachers anywhere in the world.
Click here to enter your comments.

Previous Day | This starter is for 3 July | Next Day

 

Answers

Sign in to your Transum subscription account to see the answers

 

 

Change Numbers

 

Note to teacher: Doing this activity once with a class helps students develop strategies. It is only when they do this activity a second time that they will have the opportunity to practise those strategies. That is when the learning is consolidated. Click the button above to regenerate another version of this starter from random numbers.



Your access to the majority of the Transum resources continues to be free but you can help support the continued growth of the website by doing your Amazon shopping using the links on this page. Below is an Amazon link. As an Amazon Associate I earn a small amount from qualifying purchases which helps pay for the upkeep of this website.

Educational Technology on Amazon

 

Online Maths Shop

Laptops In Lessons

Teacher, do your students have access to computers such as tablets, iPads or Laptops?  This page was really designed for projection on a whiteboard but if you really want the students to have access to it here is a concise URL for a version of this page without the comments:

Transum.org/go/?Start=July3

However it would be better to assign one of the student interactive activities below.

Laptops In Lessons

Here is the URL which will take them to a related student activity called Discombobulated.

Transum.org/go/?to=DaNumber

Student Activity

Curriculum Reference

See the National Curriculum page for links to related online activities and resources.


Transum.org is a proud supporter of the kidSAFE Seal Program