Mathematical Treasure Hunt

Introduction:

The mathematical treasure hunt is a great activity for fun and engaging mathematics lesson: each member will follow a trail
of clues and mathematical problems around the school site; each clue contains a hint to where the next clue is hidden.

The treasure hunt works best when the class is divided into groups of about 5 members of different abilities. Working in a
team, and in a competition, supports team working skills. The questions are taken from problem solving and reasoning.

Questions/Problems:

6, 13, 27, 55, …

In the sequence above, each

Make a true equation using
term after the first is
number of 2,3,4, and 5 and the
determined by multiplying the
symbols of + and =.
preceding term by m and then
adding n. What is the value of
n?

The fourth term in an

arithmetic sequence is -20 and
eight term is -10. What is the
hundredth term in the
sequence?
Clues:

Procedure:

This resource contains two treasure hunts. Each treasure hunt contains 5-7 questions appropriate to the topic. Each page
contains the answer to one of the other questions, the question to be answered and a box containing the card number.
Students are required to answer the questions and record the order in which the questions were answered. The final page
gives the order in which the cards should have been answered. This forms a loop indicating that students may start on any
card.

[b]Forming and solving equations[/b]: each question contains a problem written in words. Students are required to form,
and solve, an appropriate equation to solve the question posed.

[b]Interpreting charts[/b]: each question contains either a chart or a table of data and a question to which the answer can
be found by reading and interpreting the information in the chart or table. Histograms, cumulative frequency, and box plots
are covered.

Materials:

Every problem card has a question on it and an answer in the upper left corner (see sample below):

Notice the polynomial in the upper left corner says "Previous Answer"? Every card has a
problem and an answer on it. The answer doesn't match the problem on the card. It goes
with some other card around the room. What order the students solve all the cards is
dictated by where they find the answers.

Students have an answer sheet and they start recording answers in the first blank. They
pick ANY card posted in the room, I encourage students to start in different places so the
whole class is not all in front of the same card. Then they FIND the answer they got on a
card around the room. They solve the problem on the card that has their answer under
"Previous Answer" and so on.

Here are some answer sheet

samples:
Correct Answer with solution:

1.) Write the description of the sequence as two equations with the unknowns m and n, as shown below, and then solve for
n.

6m + n = 13             (equation 1)

13m + n = 27          (equation 2)

Using the substitution method

Isolate n in equation 1
n = 13 – 6m

Substitute n = 13 – 6m into equation 2
13m + 13 – 6m = 27
7m = 14
m=2

Substitute m = 2 into equation 1
6(2) + n = 13
n=1

Answer: n = 1

2.) The answer to this is 2+5=3+4 

3. An = a1 + (n−1)d, where d is the common difference between two consecutive terms. 

We are given the 4th and 8th terms in the sequence, so we can write the following equations: 

a4=a1+(4−1)d=a1+3d=−20 

a8=a1+(8−1)d=a1+7d=−10 

We now have a system of two equations with two unknowns: 

a1 + 3d = −20 

a1 + 7d = −10 

Let us solve this system by subtracting the equation a1 + 7d = −10 from the equation a1 + 3d = −20. The result of this
subtraction is −4d=−10. 

This means that d = 2.5. 

Using the equation a1 +7d = −10, we can find the first term of the sequence. 

a1 + 7(2.5) = −10 

a1 = −27.5 

Ultimately, we are asked to find the hundredth term of the sequence. 

a100 = a1 + (100−1)d  

= −27.5 + 99(2.5) = 220 
The answer is 220.