Fruit and Nut Problem Solving

MAIN AIMS Speaking to describe processes, noticing and looking up vocabulary, improving group dynamics and motivation

SUITABLE FOR Younger learners, teens and adults, Intermediate (B1) and above

TEACHER’S NOTES (Click here for a pdf of the Teacher’s Notes)

1.  Ask your learners to form small groups. They tell each other whether they think they are good at solving problems. They can interpret problems however they want e.g at home, at work, practical, mathematical etc.

2.  Elicit some examples and reasons from people who said yes.

3.  Show them this screenshot and present them with the problem: they have to get the peanut out of the long test tube without using any tools, turning it upside-down or breaking it. Tell them that the test tube is attached to the base and the base is attached to the table. Give them three minutes to come up with suggestions while you circulate and help with vocabulary.

4.  Elicit suggestions from the groups.

5.  Play this video so that they can compare their suggestions with the solution.

6.  Now tell them that they’re going to have a small creativity competition. Display these pictures of fruit and elicit the name of each one.

7.  Divide the class into two halves, A and B, and then subdivide each half into smaller groups of three or four. Group A gets kiwi, mango and watermelon and group B gets pomegranate, orange and strawberry.

8.  Tell them that they have to describe the best way to eat the fruit with minimum waste and maximum ease. They can use tools. Let them use mobiles or dictionaries to look up vocabulary while you circulate helping them to express what they want to say.

9.  Now have all the A groups compare their suggestions with each other on one side of the room while all the B groups do the same on the other side.

10.  Put individual As and Bs together in pairs and ask them to explain the techniques for their three fruits to each other.

11.  Now play this video. Did anyone come up with something similar? Which one surprised them the most?

12. As a follow-up, tell them to eat one of the six types of fruit using the method suggested and either video or photograph the result to show in the following class.