Prealgebra Photo Scavenger Hunt!

Math Phrases + ColorNote Phone App + Email + Printer

= Scavenger Hunt = Active Learning!

The math phrases sliced and ready to be picked!

I walked into my Prealgebra class the other day and asked, "How about doing something different today?!" There was a collective moan. "You get to leave the claaaaassroooooom!" Then there was a collective cheer.

Earlier that morning, I brainstormed about the math concepts that my Prealgebra students should know (or they were welcome to Google any unknown terms). I then entered the math phrases into my phone's ColorNote app using the Checklist function. Using the "share" feature of the app, I emailed the list to my school email account, enlarged the font, then within minutes I was cutting them into strips. I asked my students to group themselves into 3-4 per group as long as at least one person had a phone that could take and send pictures. Students chose five strips per group, left to find their math concepts somewhere on campus "in the real world" and take a picture of them. What a fun way to support active and collaborative learning! I then added one other free technological feature: I shared my Google number with the class so they could text me their pictures if they could. Within 10 minutes, I was receiving pictures. Awesome!

"Sphere" toys at our college bookstore

3 "rectangle" windows of our bookstore

Example of "percent increase" at Student Services

I later found out from our department chair that this activity covered most if not all of the five benchmarks of effective educational practice in community colleges based on CCSSE findings. The five benchmarks are:

• Active and Collaborative Learning
• Student Effort
• Academic Challenge
• Student-Faculty Interaction
• Support for Learners

Quick, fun, educational, different. I hope you'll try it if you're a teacher!