Math in the Internet Age

I'd like to thank Al Gore for inventing the Internet.  Ha! Ha!  I couldn't resist this joke.  Because if Al Gore hadn't invented the Internet, then there would be no YouTube.  And let me tell you, YouTube is what is getting me through 4th grade math.

Ian's homework assignment was to write/design a two step math word problem and tell what the hidden question was in his scenario.  Additionally, Ian had to define what a hidden question is in general.

Can I say for the record, I am 43 years old and never, ever had to know what a hidden question was or come up with word problems using a hidden question.  I think I've done ok for myself without having to know this apparently very vital piece of information.

Ian was as clueless as I was.  Unfortunately neither of us were going to be able to stay clueless much longer.  I did a search on YouTube for the Hidden Question and found a 4th grade teacher demonstrating it to his math class.  THANK YOU G-D! (or should I say, Al Gore?).  Ian and I watched the video about 3 times and completely understood what his assignment was asking.

I am still not entirely sure why Ian's teacher didn't cover this in his class before sending homework to be done.  Whatever, I can't worry about that and everything else going on.  YouTube to the rescue, yet again!

And if you too are wondering what a hidden question is, please let me take a moment to explain it to you.  In a nutshell, it's the implied steps you do to get to part of the equation that can solve the problem.

Here is an example:

John has 3 red apples
Sara has 4 red apples
How many more red apples do they need to get to a dozen?

So the hidden question in the above word problem would be adding 3 + 4 and knowing that together they have 7 red apples.  Doing that part of the equation is the hidden question.   You know you need to add the two together, but it still doesn't get you the answer to the problem.

After you've figured out the hidden question, you can then proceed with solving the problem.  12-7 = 5 more red apples needed.  Ta-da!