This is the first Info Gap activity in the course. In this activity, students write equations for proportional relationships and use the equations to make predictions but do not initially have enough information to do so. To bridge the gap, they need to exchange questions and ideas.

The Info Gap structure requires students to make sense of problems by determining what information is necessary, and then to ask for information they need to solve it. This may take several rounds of discussion if their first requests do not yield the information they need (MP1). It also allows them to refine the language they use and ask increasingly more precise questions until they get the information they need (MP6).

After students have completed their work, share the correct answers and ask students to discuss the process of solving the problems. Here are some questions for discussion:

• “How did you determine the constant of proportionality for each equation?”
• “Why did it make sense to represent each situation with a proportional relationship?”

Highlight for students that writing an equation to represent the proportional relationship makes it easier to answer questions about the situation.

In this activity students compute rates to decide which job applicant is working the fastest checking online comments. They compare rates and total number of comments checked, then see that using rates is the more useful information in this situation. 

Invite students to share which job applicant should get the job and why. 

Possible responses include:

• Person 2 should get the job because they checked the most comments total.
• Person 3 should get the job because they checked the most comments per minute.
• Person 3 should not get the job because they checked comments for the least amount of time.

To involve more students in the conversation, consider asking:

• “Do you agree or disagree? Why?”
• “Who can restate ___’s reasoning in a different way?”
• “Does anyone want to add on to _____’s strategy?”
• “Did anyone solve the problem in a different way?”
• “What connections to previous problems do you see?”