DescriptionIn this video, the fourth grade partners Romina and Brian are constructing a solution to the “Towers Problem 5-High.” PROBLEM STATEMENT: "Your group has two colors of Unifix® cubes. Work together and make as many different towers, 5 cubes tall, as is possible when selecting from two colors. Convince us that you have found them all." At the beginning of this clip, Romina and Brian check for duplicates among the twenty-one towers they have already built and wonder if they have generated all possible towers that meet the problem criteria. Romina conjectures that they have all the towers. Then researcher Alice Alston asks Brian and Romina about their thinking. When Brian says that they are using a strategy of “do the opposite,” the researcher asks what he means and then follows by asking if towers always have an opposite. The students investigate their new conjecture that every tower has an opposite by attempting to find a tower without an opposite. After verifying that all of their existing towers can be put into opposite pairs, Romina tells Brian to stand the towers up together in groups of two that she calls “matches.” One of their original towers does not have an opposite and after they generate its opposite, they have a total of twenty-two towers.
RightsThe video is protected by copyright. It is available for reviewing and use within the Video Mosaic Collaborative (VMC) portal. Please contact the Robert B. Davis Institute for Learning (RBDIL) for further information about the use of this video.
Date Captured1992-02-06
Local IdentifierA70-CMB-T5T-CLIP001
Related Publication Type: Related publication Label: Ed.D. dissertation references the video footage that includes Towers five-high selecting from two colors: Developing local organization Date: 2010 Author: Steffero, Maria (Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey)
Source Title: A70, Towers five-high selecting from two colors (student view), Grade 4, February 6, 1992, raw footage. Identifier: A70-19920206-KNWH-SV-CLASS-GR5-CMB-TW5T-RAW