IXL | Use equations with unknown numbers to solve multi-step word problems

This morning, Darren went on a walk through Bluebell Park. He spotted butterflies in three parts of the park: over the pond, in the meadow, and by the tennis courts. He spotted 14 butterflies over the pond and 8 butterflies in the meadow. In all, Darren spotted 37 butterflies.

Which equation can be used to find

the number of butterflies Darren spotted by the tennis courts?

–

How many butterflies did Darren spot by the tennis courts?

butterflies

ref_doc_title.

Learn with an example

question

Yesterday, workers at Heron Lake Nature Center moved 9 box turtles and 6 painted turtles from indoor exhibits to outdoor exhibits. Now, there are 25 turtles left in indoor exhibits.

Which equation can be used to find

the number of turtles that were in indoor exhibits before some were moved?

(

–

)

–

(

)

How many turtles were in indoor exhibits before some were moved?

turtles

solution

Start by considering the information given in the problem.

There were
t
turtles in indoor exhibits before some were moved.
The workers moved 9 box turtles and 6 painted turtles to outdoor exhibits. This means a total of
9
+
6
turtles were moved outdoors.
Now, there are 25 turtles left in indoor exhibits.

This equation matches the problem.

t	−	( 9 + 6 )	=	25

turtles indoors at the start		turtles moved outdoors		turtles left indoors

Now find

It can help to use a model.

Another way to think of this model is as

which simplifies to

There were 40 turtles in indoor exhibits before some were moved.

$Confetti$

Excellent!

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Questions
answeredQuestions

Time
elapsedTime

hr	min	sec
00	00	04

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Teacher tools

Work it out

Not feeling ready yet? These can help:

I.3Represent multi-step problems using equations

E.17Relate multiplication and division

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