#MathStratChat - September 30, 2026 Artwork

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!

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Math is Figure-Out-Able!

#MathStratChat - September 30, 2026

September 30, 2026 • Scott Holmes

0:00 | 4:44

In today’s MathStratChat, Pam and Kim discuss the MathStratChat problem shared on social media on September 30, 2026.

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

[00:00:01.060] - Pam
Hey, fellow math-ers. Welcome to the podcast where math is figure-out-able! I'm Pam Harris.

[00:00:07.650] - Kim
And I'm Kim Montague.

[00:00:09.000] - Pam
And this is a MathStratChat episode where we chat about our math strategies. Every Wednesday evening, I throw out a math problem on social media and people from around the world chat about the strategies they use and comment on each other's thinking.

[00:00:21.060] - Kim
Alright, y'all. This Wednesday, our problem was 14 times 75. How would you like to solve this problem? Pause the podcast, solve it however you want, but then come on back. The problem is 14 times 75.

[00:00:34.050] - Pam
Da dum dum. Alright, I got to tell you. Kim wrote this question, and I'm loving it because I just have all these ideas. I don't even know where to start. Why don't you start? Because I just have too many ideas to even. Yeah.

[00:00:49.070] - Kim
Okay.

[00:00:49.570] - Pam
Do you mind?

[00:00:49.960] - Kim
Yes. No, sorry. I was thinking.

[00:00:55.010] - Pam
Yes, I mind.

[00:00:55.830] - Kim
No, I don't mind. And I got to tell you, the 75. I haven't actually solved the problem, but I'm thinking the 75 feels like 75% to me. So, I'm going to go.

[00:01:06.100] - Pam
That was one I thought about.

[00:01:07.140] - Kim
Oh, okay, good. I'm going to go 75% of 14. So, I know 50% of 14 is 7. And 25% of 14 is 3.5. So, I'm going to get 10.5. But I know that it's 14 times 75. Not 0.75.

[00:01:29.110] - Pam
Nice.

[00:01:29.710] - Kim
So, I'm going to go 100 times bigger. Which then is going to make it 10,500.

[00:01:38.670] - Pam
Nice.

[00:01:40.790] - Kim
Wait, wait. Sorry, 1,050.

[00:01:44.160] - Pam
There you go.

[00:01:45.140] - Kim
You know what I did? You know what I did then? I did not scale up times 10 times 10. Which is normally what I do.

[00:01:52.430] - Pam
Yeah, totally.

[00:01:53.550] - Kim
I totally just tried to go the 100 at once.

[00:01:55.990] - Pam
In one fell swoop?

[00:01:56.860] - Kim
Yeah, yeah.

[00:01:58.060] - Pam
Alright. So, instead you thought, "Well, okay. From 10.5, I could go 105 and then 1,050."

[00:02:04.480] - Kim
Yeah.

[00:02:05.750] - Pam
Well, as I was following along what you're doing, that's what I did.

[00:02:08.330] - Kim
Great.

[00:02:09.520] - Pam
I might have used that strategy, but thought about quarters instead of percents. But I'm going to do something totally different.

[00:02:15.560] - Kim
Okay.

[00:02:15.710] - Pam
So, I'm thinking about fourteen 75s as ten 75s. That's 750. Plus four 75s. But I'm going to think about four 75s as two, two 75s. So, two 75s is 150. So, double 150 is 300. So, now I have 750 plus 300 is also your 1050. That's nice.

[00:02:36.200] - Kim
Nice.

[00:02:36.840] - Pam
That is nice. Let me tell you the other one I was playing with, if I may. If I halve the 14 to 7 and I double the 75 to 150, then I could halve again to 3.5 and double again to 300. That's not too bad.

[00:02:53.670] - Kim
It's not terrible.

[00:02:54.070] - Pam
I have to do 3.5 times 3, which I would actually have to think about a little bit. And then scale up.

[00:02:59.330] - Kim
Do you know? Oh, we've talked about this before. Do you know 35 times 3? That's one of those weird ones. Remember that I said that I... I don't know why I know that.

[00:03:06.820] - Pam
You do. Is it 105.

[00:03:09.480] - Kim
Uh-huh.

[00:03:10.260] - Pam
Yeah, kind of. But not as... I'm getting better at it.

[00:03:14.060] - Kim
That's great. Alright.

[00:03:15.320] - Pam
Thanks for having me travel that today.

[00:03:17.000] - Kim
Yeah.

[00:03:17.440] - Pam
Yeah.

[00:03:17.800] - Kim
All right. We cannot wait to see what you do every week. Join us on MathStratChat and let us know how you are thinking about the problems. And while you're there, comment on each other's strategies.

[00:03:26.720] - Pam
Yeah. 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 to hear how we're thinking about the problem. We love having you as part of the Math is Figure-Out-Able movement. Math is Figure-Out-Able.