Story Problem Studio
Choose a grade
50 problem types across five grade bands, grouped by the structure that makes them hard rather than by topic. 29 of them generate a figure. Every problem comes with the answer, a solution path, and the wrong answer most of the class will give.
Grade 5
10 problem types · 3 with figures
Measurement and spaceOpen questionsFraction divisionFractions as operatorsInterpreting the answerDecimals and place value
Find three that work · How big is the whole? · Bigger fraction, smaller amount …
Grade 6
10 problem types · 5 with figures
Measurement and spaceOpen questionsThe three percent structuresRatio and rateFraction divisionSigned numbers and expressions
Same volume, different box · Ratios that could fit · Finding the part …
Grade 7
10 problem types · 7 with figures
Rates that trap youProportional or notPercent, forwards and backwardsAngles and figures
Working together · Is it a scaled copy? · Working back to the original price …
Grade 8
10 problem types · 9 with figures
Linear relationshipsAngles and figuresSystemsExponents and scale
Rise, run and steepness · Is this pattern linear? · Reading a rate off a graph …
Algebra 1
10 problem types · 5 with figures
Open questionsQuadraticsExponential growthLinear models
One reading, many models · The most space for the fencing · Raising the price, losing customers …
Problem structures follow Lannin, Chval, Jones & Dougherty, Putting Essential Understanding of Multiplication and Division into Practice in Grades 3–5 (NCTM, 2013) and Van de Walle et al., Elementary and Middle School Mathematics (10th ed., Pearson, 2019). Unit sequence follows Illustrative Mathematics, CC BY 4.0; all problems and contexts original.