Math is Figure-Out-Able!
Math teacher educator Pam Harris and her cohost Kim Montague answer the question: If not algorithms, then what? Join them for ~15-30 minutes every Tuesday as they cast their vision for mathematics education and give actionable items to help teachers teach math that is Figure-Out-Able. See www.MathisFigureOutAble.com for more great resources!
Math is Figure-Out-Able!
#MathStratChat - November 19, 2025
In today’s MathStratChat, Pam and Kim discuss the MathStratChat problem shared on social media on November 19, 2025.
Note: It’s more fun if you try to solve the problem, share it on social media, comment on others strategies, before you listen to Pam and Kim’s strategies.
Check out #MathStratChat on your favorite social media site and join in the conversation.
Twitter: @PWHarris
Instagram: Pam Harris_math
Facebook: Pam Harris, author, mathematics education
Pam 0:00
Hey, fellow mathers! Welcome to this cool podcast where Math is figure-out-able. I'm Pam.
Kim 0:07
And I'm Kim.
Pam 0:08
And this is our MathStratChat episode, where we chat about our math strategies. Every Wednesday evening, I throw out a math problem on social media. People from around the world chat about the strategies they use and comment on each other's thinking.
Kim 0:20
Okay, so this Wednesday, the problem was 150 times 24. Go ahead and solve the problem anyway you'd like and come on back to hear how we are going to solve the problem. It's 150 times 24.
Pam 0:35
Alright.
Kim 0:35
Yeah. What
Kim 0:36
you want to do?
Pam 0:38
Um. Several things.
Kim 0:40
I know! It's a
Kim 0:41
good problem. It's really rich.
Pam 0:43
Right, you want to pick one?
Pam and Kim 0:44
Um.
Kim 0:44
You want me to go first?
Pam 0:47
Yeah, you do one, then I'll do one, then you can do one, then I'll do
Pam 0:51
one.
Kim 0:51
Oh, are we supposed to do that? Steal all the thinking.
Pam 0:54
We're going to.
Kim 0:54
Okay, I wrote down...
Pam 0:56
Oh, you don't want to
Pam 0:57
steal all the thinking. Well, alright, do one.
Pam and Kim 1:00
Okay.
Kim 1:02
Alright, I did something similar to what I did last week. I wrote down 150 times 4 times 6. So, I split up the 24 into 4 and 6. And I did that because I like 150 times 4 is 600. And 600 times 6
Kim 1:21
is 3600.
Pam 1:23
Wow. I would not have done that. Nice.
Kim 1:27
What did you do?
Pam 1:29
I thought you were going to do 150 times 2.
Kim 1:31
Oh, because I did say it was like I did last week.
Pam 1:31
That's okay.
Kim 1:31
The strategy. Not the (unclear).
Pam 1:31
So,
Pam 1:32
150 times 2 is 300. And 24 divided by 2 is 12. And 300 times 12 is like 3 times 12, which is 36. Times 100, which is 3600.
Kim 1:46
Yeah, nice.
Pam 1:46
Yeah. But can I just mention one other?
Kim 1:49
You
Kim 1:50
get one more, one more.
Pam 1:52
You should have seen
Pam 1:53
the look Kim just gave me. It's like patting a small child
Pam 1:56
on the head.
Kim 1:57
Did we tell people we see each other
Kim 1:58
now?
Pam 1:59
Oh, we're not recording visually yet, but we're practicing recording. Which it seems, right now, my head is like off the screen, and I'm like in the corner of the...
Kim 2:09
I know, we're going to have to work on that.
Pam 2:10
Totally have to work on that. I think another fun one or one that I would want to have occur to people would be 1.5 or one and a half 24s.
Kim 2:18
Yeah.
Pam 2:18
So, instead of 150, think about 1.5. So, one 24 is 24, plus a half a 24 is 12, and 24 plus 12 is 36.
Kim 2:27
Mmhm.
Pam 2:27
But then I would need to scale that up times 100 because 1.5 is 100 divided by 100 to get... Yeah, it's 100. I can't say times less 100. It's a hundredth of. 1.5 is a hundredth of 150. Yeah.
Kim 2:40
Playing with
Kim 2:41
math is fun. Alright.
Pam 2:42
Indeed.
Kim 2:43
We can't wait to see what you do every week. Join us on MathStratChat and let us know how you think about the problems and comment on each other's strategies.
Pam 2:51
Y'all, we post the problems on Wednesdays around 7:00 p.m. Central. When you answer, tag me and use the hashtag MathStratChat. Then join us here to hear how we're thinking about the problem. Y'all, we love having you as part of the Math is Figure-Out-Able movement. Math is Figure-out-able!