A round table seats six. Three boys and three girls must be seated around it so that boys and girls alternate.

A round table seats six. Three boys and three girls must be seated around it so that boys and girls alternate. How many ways can this be done? An extension of the problem and a complete discussion of the underlying mathematical ideas are included. This mathematically rich problem was originally developed for the Project Discovery Mathematics by Inquiry institutes for middle grades teachers taught in 1992 - 1994 at Ohio State University. Project Discovery was co-funded by the Ohio Board of Regents and the Statewide Systemic Initiative (SSI) program of the National Science Foundation. (author/sw)