Try it yourself: the animal problem

Try to solve this task using the Bar Model method.

It is a well-known task from Bar Model literature. You can read more about it in this article:

Ng, S.F., & Lee, K. (2009). The model method: Singapore children’s tool for representing and solving algebraic word problems. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 40(3), 282-313.

The task is:

The animal problem: A cow weighs 150 kg more than a dog. A goat weighs 130 kg less than a cow. Altogether the three animals weigh 410 kg. What is the weight of the cow.

If you need some more explanation you can see screenshots of two different solutions here with the cow as generator and here with the dog as generator or you can watch a video about it in the next step.