The original syllabus is available.
Remember: I’m a mathematician, not an elementary educator. help keep me on track for what you need.
Reminder that elementary is not a judgement, it’s a description. when a mathematician or scientist uses “elementary”, they mean to understand or solve a problem almost from first principles.
(e.g. Elementary functions like sine and cosine cannot be built simply from other functions.)
After checking the table of contents, for which topics in chaps 2-7 would you like the most review?
Via email, please. I’d like to have them while planning the next few classes.
Emphasis for early years is the first, problems to find.
Continuing example from Plya; uses the geometry of right triangles. A bit past elementary level, but it illustrates the right aspects.
Find the diagonal of a box (rectangular parallelpiped, like the classroom) of which the length, width, and height are known.
draw the figure
(dialog not including additional prodding, etc)
Do you know of a related problem?
(tea kettle joke about reducing to an already solved problem)
Look at the unknown. Do you know of a similar problem with the same type of unknown? It’s a length.
If remembering length of a hypotenuse, good!
Otherwise: can you think of a similar but simpler problem?
Keep close to the actual problem by checking that all relevant data are used, and that the entire condition is used.
(most explicit hint to use: Can you find a triangle?)
Add additional notation for the new length, d.
Apply Pythagorus.
Smaller triangle: {a}^{2} + {b}^{2} = {d}^{2}.
Apply to larger triangle: {d}^{2} + {c}^{2} = {x}^{2}.
So: {a}^{2} + {b}^{2} + {c}^{2} = {x}^{2}.
Can you check or verify the result? Test it?
Did you use all the data?
Can you reach the same conclusion differently?
Does this reduce to the simpler case? Do the dimensions match?
Can you think of similar problems to which this may apply? (e.g. distance from the center to a corner)