The Problem: There is a special collection of 16 coins in a piggy bank. The collection totals a dollar. Two of the coins are quarters. What can the other coins be? Write/draw to explain your solution.

We had 45 responses (only one e-mail - let's start using that e-mail). Of the 45 responses, 18 were correct. There were three different solutions, examples of those solutions are below. As you can see, all the responses were drawings. An examples~ of a written explanation of the solution follows:

 "I started with 16 coins, which equal one dollar. I subtract the 2 coins (2 quarters = 50 cents). Now I have 14 coins which equal 50 cents [one dollar minus fifty cents equals fifty cents.] I can then use trial and error to find the other coins."

Below are some students drawing explaining the answer.

 

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