Visualization to Representation

Mathematicians have been working on visualizing math problems first then using materials to represent their thinking.  Today we learned the difference between mathematicians and artists in math.  Initially students had 30 seconds to draw their representation of the story problem, they stopped put their pencils down and shared their work.  We brainstormed ways to be more efficient and represent our thinking in a way that supports our learning and understanding of the problem:  tallies, circles, lines, etc.  We reset the timer for 30 more seconds and tried a new math problem as efficient mathematicians and represent our thinking.  Students were shocked they were able to draw their picture, write their equation to match and draw a math mountain to double check their work.