Consider two related tasks:

A) The diagram below displays a fragment of a pattern known to extend indefinitely and to be generated by an endlessly repeating pattern. What kind of shading will the 137th cell have? What number cell will the 137th white cell be in?

B) What is the next term in the sequence 3, 6, 11, 18, 27, …?

Tasks like the first can provide excellent experience of detecting and expressing generality as one route to algebra, but only if learners are first asked to describe a structural relationship which generates the succeeding items. Tasks like the second feature in intelligence tests, but it is well known that such tasks are mathematically incomplete.