Abstract

This article shows how to start the student in the representation of points in a coordinate axis system. A series of challenging problems were proposed with different levels of difficulty and of different kinds that are integrated into the curriculum. Additionally, four spaces were opened for students to interact with recreational math activities in order to provide opportunities for all students to access the construction of robust meaning of the concepts involved. In the end it describes how these components are interrelated and are directly involved in learning mathematics. The topics covered were: whole number order, representation of points in the Cartesian plane, translations of geometric figures and slope of a straight line.

Key words: Challenge problems, recreational math, robust thinking.