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! 

How to Study: Foldables Idea!

THINK OF THE POSSIBILITIES! 

Foldables from The Inspired Classroom

The blog The Inspired Classroom  has some wonderful teaching and learning ideas. The above picture is a nice technique for learning the scientific method, but OH! Think of the possibilities here one could do with math! Someone could make a foldable using basic math terms (factor, multiple, prime,... ) or algebra terms (like terms, coefficient, constant, variable, ...). My students are welcome to give this a try for some extra credit points. Creating study materials is part of learning!

Fall 12 Math 030 Word-Photos



10 and 8 are CONSTANTS

 Week 1:  Commutative, variable, constant

Note to R. Schantz's students: For now, if you have a photo that YOU took to go with a word of the week, please email it to me (to my school email) along with the VOCAB WORD IN CAPS and a brief desciption of how that word relates to your photo. In the subject of the email, type class (020? 030?), day/time, and vocabulary word (in caps).

For example, for the photo posted here:

Subject: MTH 030, MW 9:30am, CONSTANT

Help us try to find MATH IN THE REAL WORLD. It's out there! :-)

I will do my best to share the photo with the class. I will try pinning it to Pinterest. I may ask for help from you (if you know how to pin).

I'm looking forward to seeing your "math" photos!

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This JUST in! Thank you, A.N, A.E., R.H., M.G. and N.D. for your math word-photos. I'm still looking for photos for the word VERTICAL!

Oscar's toy is HORIZONTAL! (How cute is this?!)

The 1st base and 3rd base running lines meet at a right angle; the lines are PERPENDICULAR.

 

This picture is from a gym floor: the paint is PERPENDICULAR to the PARALLEL lines.

The sky's horizon at the mall. Same as a HORIZONTAL line in math.

My shoes are arranged in PARALLEL rows in my closet!

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This JUST in! Thank you, A.E., for your word-photo!  

11:11 represents a CONSTANT in the number because of the same font, size, and color.

I hope to now get photos for the other 2 words of the week: commutative, variable (those can be fun!)

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This JUST in! Thank you, A.N., for your word-photos! Both are COMMUTATIVE PROPERTY examples!

 No matter whether you use yellow or blue
first, you still get green.

Whether I put in my left contact or right contact first,
the end result is still the same. I can see.