One of the favourite questions that maths teachers like to ask is, 'How many ways can...?' This maths challenge is one of the best examples of this type of investigation. There are three boxes and 20 buttons. How many ways can the buttons be put in the boxes so that there is an even number in each box? At first glance it might seem that there are not a great many possible answers to this, but in fact there are over 30. Whilst most children will work in a fairly random way it is important that at some stage they try to become more methodical and simplify the task, perhaps be asking a question such as: 'How many ways can this be done with 2 buttons in box A?' At first they may need some help to ask these kinds of questions and record results in a methodical way, to make sure that they have got all the possible combinations. Go to the Buttons in the Boxes Maths Challenge for Year 2