KFCW Method of Solving Word Problems.

Yesterday, I showed how to solve word problems using the 5 W’s from english.  Today, it is the KFCW or “Kentucky Fried Chicken Wings”  which is a take off on KWL or know, wonder, learn.  I found it was another way to have my students read and really comprehend the information in the word problem.  

The K stands for what do you know.  In other words, what information does the word problem give you to work with.  The F is for find or what are you supposed to be finding.  In other words, the question.  The C stands for consider or what are the things you need to think about in order to solve the problem.  The W is for the work itself.  

Let’s look at this problem.

“Biologists need to know roughly how many fish live in a certain lake, but they don’t want to stress or otherwise harm the fish by draining or dragnetting the lake.  Instead, they let down small nets in a few different spots around the lake, catching, tagging and releasing 96 fish.  A week later, after the tagged fish have a chance to mix thoroughly with the general population, the biologists come back and let down their nets again.  They catch 72 fish, of which 4 are tagged.  Assuming the catch is representative, how many fish live in the lake?

Know - I know they tagged 96 fish.  I also know that one week later they caught 72 fish of which 4 had tags so 4/72 are tagged.

Find - They want to know how many fish are in the lake?

Consider - This looks like I have to use ratios due to the 4 tagged out of 72 fish.

Work - 4/72 = 96/x.  So 72 x 96 = 6912/4 = 1728 total fish.

This is a bit shorter than what I spoke out earlier in the week but it does require students to think in more detail about what they need to do to solve any problem.  Some problems might require them to find the area of a circle but they only have the diameter so they’d have to remember that the A formula needs the radius which is half of the diameter.  This thought would go under consideration.

Some problems will give a decimal as part of the answer but they can only use whole numbers such as with cans of paint.  Most cans of paint tell you how many square feet  they cover and you have to divide the total area of the walls by the square footage to get the number of cans needed but it’s important to include a note about rounding up to the next integer, otherwise you might not have enough paint.  

So this is my “Kentucky Fried Chicken Wings” Method.  Let me know what you think, I’d love to hear.  Have a great day.