In this lesson, students learn to think strategically before plunging into a solution method. After a Warm-up in which they construct their own equation to solve a problem, they look at equations with different structures and decide whether the solution will be positive, negative, or zero, without solving the equation. They judge which equations are likely to be easy for them to solve and which are likely to be difficult for them.

Students must use the structure of equations to look for features of an equation that will tell them something about the solution or help them choose a solution path (MP7).