Each member of the relay team will run 2 laps around the field. If there are 4 people on the relay team, how would you
figure out how many total laps will be run

  8 laps

Step-by-step explanation:

You can simply add up the number of laps:

 (1st student laps) + (2nd student laps) +(3rd student laps) +(4th student laps)

 = 2 laps + 2 laps + 2 laps + 2 laps

 = 8 laps . . . . total for the 4 students

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Many people find it tedious to add the same number over and over, so they make use of the invention of multiplication. If you want to add 4 twos, you can simply multiply 4 times 2 to get the result.

  total laps = (laps/student) × (number of students)

  = (2 laps/student) × (4 students) = 8 laps

Additional comment

May people look at this and say "word problem!" and then turn off their brain and go into a state of shock.

It is more productive to read the words, and use your imagination to visualize the scenario and what the question is asking. If you imagine 4 team members standing at the starting line and anticipating running 2 laps (each), the total number of laps should be so obvious that you don't even have to think about how you arrived at the solution.