As part of one of the undergraduate Bachelor of Education units offered as a specialisation unit in primary mathematics education at The University of Notre Dame Australia, the pre-service teachers were asked to complete an assignment. In this assignment they were given 12 typical algebra text book problems which they were asked to solve and then to take one of these problems and work extensively with it, to turn it into what was referred to as a "rich" learning experience. Working through the process of solving many problems provides experience to allow the identification of what constitutes a good task (Siemon, Beswick, Brady, Clark, Faragher & Warren, 2011). The main body of this article is the journey undertaken by one of the pre-service teachers, Courtney, in completing this assessment task and his reflections about the task. It should be noted that this assignment was preceded by much in the way of discussion and modelling of current best practice with an emphasis on developing sound pedagogy backed by current research. In answering the task requirements, Courtney drew the many strands of understanding together to create what was considered to be a cogent and thoughtful reflection which illustrates how a relatively trivial and context-free question can be teased out to provide not just an answer but a series of activities that can lead to developing some key understandings in the area of algebra. At the conclusion of this article is a small section which outlines some of the Australian Curriculum proficiencies and content links which have been addressed in the completion of this set of activities. (Contains 2 figures.)