Mathematically, how is the answer 16

Question

Jake put six black checkers in a row, and completely surrounded them with red checkers. If every red checker was touching at least one black checker then what was the minimum number of red checkers that jake had to use?

 

As a teacher, I am trying to help my students solve this answer and we keep getting different answers.

Answer 1

In order to completely surround the black checkers, the red checkers have to go in the slots in between with one sticking out each end of the top and bottom, then two reds on either end of the blacks.

 

6 reds have 5 spaces "between." That's 10 blacks for the top and bottom. 2 on both ends of the top and bottom makes 14 and 1 on each end of the reds makes 16.