EVALUATING THE TEAM RESPONSE

There are several approaches that a team can successfully use to solve this problem. Here are three:

  1. Guess and check: students make a table and arrive at a conclusion on succesive steps
  2. Graphing: students draw a graph similar to figure 1 and arrive at a solution based upon it
  3. Solving equations: students write down the equivalent of equations 1 and 2 and solve them together, finding a solution that fits both equations.

Find the students' best solution and plot its location on the graph in Figure 1 to see if it is a valid solution (falls below the heavy, solid line). Then evaluate their response, using this scoring guide:

THE SCORING GUIDE

SCORE

DESCRIPTION

4

Outstanding: Solution includes 4 of the following 5 criteria

  1. The number of chairs and tables that the team has selected is on or below the heavy, solid line in figure 1
  2. The problem restatement is present and accurate. It doesn't have to restate all the problem elements.
  3. The analysis section uses one of the 3 techniques described in the analysis. Either a table, a graph or a set of correct equations appears.
  4. The conclusion states a reason why the team believes their selection is best.
  5. The team does not have to arrive at the optimum solution of 520 chairs and 240 tables, but their computed profit must be at or above $19,200, showing that they gave this problem sufficient thought.

3

Very good: Solution includes criteria items 1, 2 and 3 above. The solution does not violate any problem limit and follows all instructions.

2

Anything less than a 3 which still addresses the problem. A response which just guesses at the answer with no organized problem approach would be a level 2 response.

1

An incomplete, off-task, or blank response or a response which violates the problem definition or did not follow instructions, or shows that the team did not understand the problem.