Your job is to make changes in the system that would make it easier to use. When you have completed your task, you will get to share your system with the entire class. At this point, students should be allowed to work in cooperative groups or individually to solve the problem. Any modification that makes the system easier to use must be accepted. Activities like this seem to differentiate themselves.
More capable students tend to make more complex modifications.
If you use cooperative groups, you may wish to structure the groups heterogeneously. Jim's System Jim decided to work alone. He thought the main problem was that it was that the symbols were too hard for him to draw. Jim simply changed the symbols using a mark for 1, an X for 10, an H for hundred and a T for thousand. He finished quickly.