Modeling Problems that Bring the Common Core to Life

Instructor: Maria Hernandez

Reflective Summary by Diana Tunnell
6/24/14 Day 3
Suez Canal
The Suez Canal problem is a thought provoking problem that lends itself well to a real-world application of
maximizing a production schedule given physical constraints. This is a problem that is challenging in its task;
the Egyptian government struggles with this daily, as well as the group dynamic involved. True 21
st
century
problems are not likely to have simple, optimal answers. The question is, Can you find an answer better than
one already known? It would be best to build up to a problem of this caliber after students have had multiple
opportunities to work through smaller problems through group work.
TASK: To create a schedule that allows for as many ships to pass through the Suez Canal in a 24 hour period
meeting the given constraints. The known given solution is 74. (see handout).
As a group we discussed ideas of how we would introduce this problem to a class. Building background is
important. I would share the general task information as stated above and then show the class a globe or map
that would provide a visual to help students see the benefit the Suez Canal provides in transporting goods via
shipping around the world. I would then show the Suez Canal Time Lapse Video on YouTube which Maria
Showed us found at http://youtu.be/L0J-VIvKLsc. This gives great spatial perspective as well as interesting
overview of the geography for the area.
First we agreed that providing the handout the night prior to the group work with an assignment to read,
highlight key information and sketch out some ideas or approaches would be good. The handout is dense to
read and there was concern that slower readers may shut down and miss critical details if other group
members were ready to begin first. For the day of, I would follow Marias model of 5 minutes of quiet read
and think time to gather ones own ideas. I would then have predetermined groups work together. Since this
problem is very challenging, the teacher needs to be very aware that all are participating and given the
prompts necessary to move ahead.
The teachers role is to give the groups authority to discern information needed and to try different
approaches. The teachers role is to have an ear open to key information and have that information shared
with the group. Ruth just said something interesting, Ruth can you share that with the whole group please.
It is important to intermittently stop the group dynamic for brief periods and ask the groups to share ideas in
order to build from one another.
My group started by agreeing on our assumptions of the problems detail and constraints. Some of our
assumptions included that the ships would be the same length, some would still be in the canal from the prior
day, we could have a convoy greater than 17 ships as long as they were out of the canal before intersecting
with a northbound convoy. Maria gave us grid paper to use which represented the 24 hour time period and
the distance of the canal We discussed several ideas, returning to a Thats not going to work result.

We were then prompted to start small and talk about what it would look like to get one or two ships through.
Anther reasonable approach suggested was to work backwards, knowing that a maximum of 106 ships could
physically be in the canal, yet passing/mooring constraints would never allow this possibility. We tried
increasing and decreasing the bands (representing the number of ships in the convoys).
The Math: Based on the distance (160km), speed (14km/hr) and spacing constraints (every 10 minutes) we
determined that an uninterrupted trip for one ship would take 11.4 hours. The slope for the line representing
maximum progress would be 14 Found by using the slope formula between the two points (0,0) and (11.4,
160).
Our group made minimal progress and did not even find a schedule that would allow the known amount of
ships to pass with the time given for the problem. Maria shared a better solution. This demonstrates how
perseverance is needed with problems like these and that many are not the types of problems that can be
solved in a single class period. However, I can testify that the challenging was intriguing and built my curiosity
up so that I would enjoy the challenge of continuing to find my own solution for the problem presented today.