Webinars SET B - Grade 5-6 - Sunday@4:30-5:30pm EST-Recording Webinar 6

Video Transcription

Video Summary

The Math Kangaroo Level 5-6 webinar focused on problem-solving strategies, specifically working backwards and guess and check methods, to tackle challenging math contest problems. The session started with a warm-up problem and emphasized careful reading, note-taking, and organized work to avoid mistakes. Participants worked through a variety of problems sourced from past contests, including age puzzles, lock combination challenges, nuts eaten by squirrels, selfie counts, knights and liars logic puzzles, token exchanges, and arrangement of tables and chairs.<br /><br />Key strategies highlighted included:<br /><br />- Working backwards by starting from the result and reversing operations.<br />- Guess and check with logical adjustments based on previous attempts.<br />- Using inverse operations like addition/subtraction or multiplication/division.<br />- Looking for patterns by analyzing simpler cases for complex problems.<br />- Employing algebraic expressions to model and solve word problems.<br /><br />The webinar featured polls for interactive problem-solving and encouraged participants to engage via chat for questions. Specific difficult problems, such as the knights and liars puzzle and the token exchange problem, were broken down with step-by-step reasoning to illustrate the problem-solving approach.<br /><br />Instructors emphasized that not all high-point questions are inherently difficult and that students should attempt all problems, securing quick points before investing time in harder questions. Various approaches were welcomed, and students were encouraged to develop personalized problem-solving methods.<br /><br />The session concluded with encouragement to continue practicing, re-watching lessons, and using past contest problems to build confidence ahead of the Math Kangaroo contest.

Keywords

Math Kangaroo

Level 5-6

problem-solving strategies

working backwards

guess and check

math contest problems

logic puzzles

algebraic expressions

interactive webinar

practice and preparation