Seven-year old Megan sets the large pitcher of lemonade on the table, the essential component to her lemonade stand. Her father explains, “To make money you need to make sure that you spend less on lemonade and cups than you earn.” Showing Megan the price of the lemonade mix and cups and the number of servings each jar of lemonade mix makes, he explains that she will make enough money to stay in business if she sells each cup of lemonade for 50 cents. “Don’t overfill each cup. See this line?” Megan’s father asks, pointing to a line near the top of the cup. “Pour lemonade up to this line.” Nodding, Megan excitedly answers, “OK!” Megan is pleasantly surprised to see that her lemonade stand is popular with the neighborhood kids and adults. So much so that she runs out of

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cups. Racing into her house, Megan asks her mother for more cups. “These are all we have left,” she answers, handing Megan a package of cups. Megan notices that the new cups are a little bit larger than her first set of cups. As she pours lemonade into the new cups, Megan remembers her father’s warning that if she wants to make enough money to stay in business she shouldn’t overfill cups. She carefully adjusts the amounts, pouring a little bit less into each cup.At the end of the week Megan happily counts her earnings. Her father reminds her to put aside money to buy more supplies. “How much money do you think we need to buy more lemonade and cups?” he asks. “I don’t know,” Megan answers. “Well let’s see,” he responds. “The lemonade powder cost $2 and you needed two jars. How much is that?” “Four!” “How much were the cups?Look at the price sticker.” “One dollar, but we need two, right?” “Yes, so how much are the cups?” “Two dollars.” “So how much will our supplies cost?” Megan looks unsure. “How much is the lemonade? How much are the cups? Put those numbers together.” “Six!” “Exactly. Now, how much money did you make?” “Thirteen dollars.” “And how much will you have left after buying supplies? It’s how much money you made, take away what you spend on supplies” “Seven?” “Yes, you earned seven dollars!”Now 20 years old, Megan fondly looks back on her lemonade-selling days. “I wish everything were that easy. Simple problems and simple answers. It’s not like that anymore.” Megan sometimes finds her college classes challenging: “There are so many theories and every theory sounds good and makes sense. I think it’s just a matter of opinion because every theory explains stuff just as well as the others.” Megan’s older sister responds, “Not so fast. Not all theories are equally good. It might look that way at first, but if you look a little deeper you’ll see that some have more support to back them up than others. Which theory to choose is not really an opinion; it’s a judgment based on weighing the evidence.” Megan retorts, “You just overthink everything because you’re in graduate school!”What role does Megan’s father play in her cognitive advances? Describe his actions from Vygotsky’s perspective.

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Suggested Answer: Megan’s father helped her by providing scaffolding for a task that was clearly in the zone of proximal development. He helped Megan figure out the supplies she would need, and how to use them, building on basic math skills she already knew.