In this Model Eliciting Activity, MEA, students are asked to decide which factors are important in choosing the best cookie in a cookie contest. Students will take on the role of cookie critics to provide feedback to a teacher whose grade level is deciding which cookie to use for a fundraiser. They will rank order their choices from the best to worst cookie. Students will provide a detailed written explanation for how they decided to rank factors and their solution. They will show their work while adding up to 4 two-digit numbers to calculate the total number of votes.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. MEAs resemble engineering problems and encourage students to create solutions in the form of mathematical and scientific models. Students work in teams to apply their knowledge of science and mathematics to solve an open-ended problem, while considering constraints and tradeoffs. Students integrate their ELA skills into MEAs as they are asked to clearly document their thought process. MEAs follow a problem-based, student centered approach to learning, where students are encouraged to grapple with the problem while the teacher acts as a facilitator. To learn more about MEA’s visit: https://www.cpalms.org/cpalms/mea.aspx