A chocolate dilemma!

Amy Belinda Carrie Daisy Ellie FreyaGeorge Harry

  • These 8 children are standing outside a room.
  • They know that there are 3 tables inside and each table has 8 chairs around.
  • They go into the room one at a time and may choose to sit where they wish, but may not speak to each other.
  • On table 1 there is one bar of chocolate, table 2 has two bars of chocolate and table 3 has three bars of chocolate.
  • The bars of chocolate are all the same size.
  • When all of the children have come in and have sat down, they share the chocolate on their table between them.

Amy goes in first. Which table should she sit at so that she gets the most chocolate?

Table 1Table 2Table 3

  • You need to decide where Amy should sit.
  • You need to make a poster to explain your decision.
  • You need to explain what assumptions you have made.
  • You need to show how you made your decision – you can use diagrams and/or writing.
  • You need to show what other ideas you considered and why you rejected them.
  • You need to be able to present your poster and ideas to the rest of the class.
  • Part of your presentation should show how you worked cooperatively and successfully as a group.

Possible assumption cards to reject/ adopt.

The Geeks will sit together / You can’t predict what others will do so you need to make your choice on who is sitting down when you come in / All the bars of chocolate are the same size
Daisy doesn’t like chocolate / Everybody will sit at a table that they think will give them the most Chocolate / All the bars of chocolate can be split into 12 pieces
Freya is scary and nobody will sit at her table / Everybody is equally good at maths and won’t make a mistake when they do the sums that will help them choose which table to sit at / People who are already sitting don’t talk as someone is making their mind up
Everybody does the same sums to decide where to sit / George and Harry will come in together / People only have 30 seconds to choose where to sit