License Plates and Divisibility

The divisibility rules are often “accepted without proof” by both teachers and students. The problem explored in this session involves a rich, novel way of looking at “amazing numbers,” to authentically develop notions around patterns of divisibility as a solution strategy. “This session offered opportunities for the group to use a wide range of strategies, depending on which approach a person chose in solving it. Some gravitated toward abstraction, which perhaps tilted their work toward MP7 and 8 in an algebraic sense. Others did more with modeling. All of us were involved in arguing, sense making, reasoning abstractly, and precision....