This learning video is designed to develop critical thinking in students by encouraging them to work from basic principles to solve a puzzling mathematics problem that contains uncertainty. Materials for in-class activities include: a yard stick, a meter stick or a straight branch of a tree; a saw or equivalent to cut the stick; and a blackboard or equivalent. In this video lesson, during in-class sessions between video segments, students will learn among other things: 1) how to generate random numbers; 2) how to deal with probability; and 3) how to construct and draw portions of the X-Y plane that satisfy linear inequalities.

This lesson unit is intended to help teachers assess how well students are able to use linear inequalities to create a set of solutions. In particular, the lesson will help teachers identify and assist students who have difficulties in: representing a constraint by shading the correct side of the inequality line; and understanding how combining inequalities affects a solution space.