Supreme Court Handshakes

Team Believe is learning about government as part of social studies inquiry.  We are focusing on the levels and branches of government.  We incorporated math problem solving into a lesson about the Supreme Court.  Students learned that it is a tradition for the Supreme Court to begin each session with each justice shaking the hands of each other justice exactly one time.  The challenge was for students to figure out exactly how many handshakes there would be given different sized groups.  Students worked together in teams using the 'act it out' strategy to find and prove their answers.