FOUR STEPS

IN PROBLEM SOLVING
BY: HANNAH ORJALIZA & YSA VALES
 SPECIFIC OBJECTIVE
At the end of this lesson, the student should be able to:

Tell all the Polya’s four steps in problem solving.

Select the appropriate strategy to solve the problem.
Solve problems with the use of Polya’s four step.
Introduction
One of the major problems of a student in mathematics
is on how to solve worded problems correctly and
accurately. Sometimes, they have difficulty
understanding in graspin the main idea of a problem on
how to deal with it and to solve it. It is very important
that there is always a clear understanding on how to
solve problems most especially in a Mathematics as a
course.
Introduction
When you were in your senior high school, your teacher in
mathematics especially in the course of Algebra taught
you on how to solve problem using scientific method.
Some of these problems are number problem, age
problem, coin problem, work problem, mixture problem,
etc. But not all problems in mathematics could be solve
on what you have learned in your senior high school.
Here, in this lesson, we will be learning on how to solve
mathematical problem in a different way.
GEORGE POLYA

Who is George Polya?

George Polya is one of the foremost recent mathematicians
to make a study of problem solving. He was born in Hungary
and moved to the United States in 1940. He is also known as “
The Father of Problem Solving.”

He made fundamental contributions to combinatorics,

number theory, numerical analysis and probability theory. He
is also noted for his work in heuristics and mathematics
education. Heuristic, a Greek word means that "find" or
"discover" refers to experience-based techniques for problem
solving, learning, and discover that gives a solution which is
not guaranteed to be optimal.
 STEP 1.

Problem-Solving Method
UNDERSTAND THE PROBLEM

George Polya’s
This part of Polya’s four-step strategy is often overlooked. You must have a clear
understanding of the problem. To help you focus on understanding the problem,
consider the following questions. These are some questions that you may be
asked to yourself before you solve the problem.
a. Are all words in a problem really understand and clear by the reader?
b. Do the reader really know what is being asked in a problem on how to find the
exact answer?
c. Can a reader rephrase the problem by their own without deviating to its meaning?
d. If necessary, do the reader can really visualize the real picture of the problem by
drawing the diagram?
e. Are the information in the problem complete or is there any missing information
in a problem that could impossible to solve the problem?
 STEP 2.

Problem-Solving Method
DEVISE A PLAN

George Polya’s
Sometimes, it is necessary for us that to be able to solve a problem in
mathematics, we need to devise a plan. To be able to succeed to solve a problem,
you could use different techniques or way in order to get a positive result. Here
are some techniques that could be used.
a. As much as possible, list down or identify all important information in the problem?
b. Sometimes, to be able to solve problem easily, you need to draw figures or diagram
and tables or charts.
c. Organized all information that are very essential to solve a problem.
d. You could work backwards so that you could get the main idea of the problem.
e. Look for a pattern and try to solve a similar but simpler problem.
f. Create a working equation that determines the given (constant) and variable.
g. You could use the experiment method and sometimes guessing is okay.
 STEP 3.

Problem-Solving Method
CARRY OUT THE PLAN

George Polya’s
After we devised a plan, the next question is “How are we going to carry out the
plan?”. Now, to be able to carry out the plan, the following suggestions could help
us in order to solve a problem.

a. Carefully and accurately working on the problem.

b. There must be a clear and essential information or data in the problem.
c. If the first plan did not materialize, make another plan. Do not be afraid to make
mistakes if the first plan that you do would not materialize. There is a saying that
“There is a second chance.”
 STEP 4.

Problem-Solving Method
LOOK BACK OR REVIEW THE
SOLUTION

George Polya’s
Just like on what you do in solving worded problems in Algebra, you should
always check if your answer is correct or not. You need to review the solution that
you have made. How will you check your solution? The following could be your
guide.
a. Make it sure that your solution is very accurate and it has all important details of
the problem.
b. Interpret the solution in the context of the problem.
c. Try to ask yourself if the solutions you’ve made could also be used in other
problems.
 As it was mentioned in this lesson, there are different strategies
that you could employ or use to solve a problem. These
strategies will help you to solve the problem easily. These are the
following strategies that you could be used:

1. Draw a picture, diagram, table or charts. Label these with correct information or
data that you could see in the problems. Sometimes, there are hidden
information that is very much important also to solve the problem. So, be
cautious.
2. Identify the known and unknown quantities. Choose appropriate variable in
identifying unknown quantities. For example, the unknown quantity is height.
You could use “h” as your variable.
3. You have to be systematic.
 As it was mentioned in this lesson, there are different strategies
that you could employ or use to solve a problem. These
strategies will help you to solve the problem easily. These are the
following strategies that you could be used:

4. Just like on what we have in devising a plan, look for a pattern and try to solve
a similar but simpler problem.
5. Sometimes, guessing is okay. There is no problem in guessing and it is not a
bad idea to be able to begin in solving a problem. In guessing, you could
examine how closed is your guess based on the given problem.
 Examples using Polya’s Method
1. The sum of three consecutive positive integers is 165.
What are these three numbers?
Step 1. Understand the problem
For example, the numbers 4, 5, 6 are three consecutive numbers for single-
digit numbers. For the two-digit number, example of these are i 32, 33, and
34.
Step 2. Devising a plan
From the previous discussion of this lesson, devising a plan is very essential to
solve a problem. We could use an appropriate plan for this kind ofproblem and
that is formulating a working equation. Since we do not know what are these
three consecutive positive integers, we will be using a variable, say x to epresent
a particular number. This variable x could be the first number. Now, since it is
consecutive, the second number will be increased by 1. So, the possible
presentation would be x + 1. The third number was increased by 2 from the first
number so the possible presentation would be x + 2. Since, based on the
problem that the sum of these three consecutive positive integers is 165, the
working equation is
Step 3.Carry out the plan
We already know the working formula. To be able to determine the three
positive consecutive integers, we will be using the concept of Algebra here in
order to solve the problem. Manipulating algebraically the given equation;

Step 4. Look back and review the solution

We need to review our solution to check if the answer is correct. How
are we going to do that? Just simply add the identified three consecutive
positive integers and the result should be 165. So, adding these three numbers,
54 + 55 + 56 will give us a sum of 165.
 Examples using Polya’s Method
2. There are ten students in a room. If they give a handshake for his classmate
once and only once, how many handshakes can be made?

Step 1. Understand the problem

Let us say that you are one of those ten students in a room. To know
how many handshakes could be made with those ten students, we need
to name those ten students as A, B C. …, I, and J. If you were student A
you could give a handshake to nine different students. Now, if you give
your hand to B, i.e., A to B, it can be said that giving a handshake by B to
A is just only one count. Obviously, you cannot make a handshake to
yourself as well as B to himself and so on.
Step 2. Devising a plan
To determine the total number of handshakes, it is very easy if we are
going to create a table.

The x symbol represent that you cannot make a handshake to yourself and
symbol meaning that a handshake was made.
 A B C D E F G H I J

J
 A B C D E F G H I J

Total 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
So, adding this 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 = 45.
Hence, there are a total of 45 handshakes if these ten
students give a handshake for his classmate once and
only once.
Step 4. Look back and review the solution

We already know the working formula. To be able to

determine the three positive consecutive integers, we will
be using the concept of Algebra here in order to solve the
problem. Manipulating algebraically the given equation;
3. Five different points, say A, B, C, D, and E are on a plane where no three
points are collinear. How many lines can be produced in these five
points?

EXAMPLE 3
Five points are on a plane where no three points are
collinear. If you want to determine the number of lines
Step 1. Understand
from these five points, remember that the minimum
the problem number of points to produce a line is two. So, two
points determine a line.

The best way in order to determine the number of

lines that can produce in a five different points
where no three points are collinear is to plot those
Step 2. Devise a plan
five points in a plane and label it as A, B, C, D, and E.
Then list down all the possible lines. Take note that
line AB is as the same as line BA.
Step 3. Carry out a
plan

EXAMPLE 3
Counting all possible lines connected in five
Step 4. Look back
different points where no three points are collinear is
and review the
solution still we could check that the total number of line
could be produced of these five points are ten lines.
THANK YOU