As a group of middle school mathematics teachers and teacher educators, the authors have focused their attention on using innovative practices coupled with high cognitive demand tasks to engage students, pique their interest in mathematics, and promote conceptual understanding. This article explores their three-act task design. In act 1, students engage in a problem, usually set up and introduced in a video; act 2 gives additional information so that students can develop their own strategies and solutions; and act 3 resolves the problem, allowing students to test the validity of their solution.