Combination Stations

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8 Comments
MS Funday Sunday is hosting a link to Math Stations:

This was the one of the most fun activities my colleague, Jessica, and I did with our Algebra 1A students.

We put Four 3 and and Two 4 digit pad locks at stations around the room. Then we made easy to horrendous Order of Operations problems that gave the correct combinations to unlock the locks. The students were so motivated! Talk about self -correcting! I guess we could have put candy inside a lock box or free homework passes or stickers...Eh...

One answer even had a fraction so that the answer 86 1/3 was the four digit combination, and of course, one decimal answer too.

What other kinds of problems can you think of to come up with combinations for the locks? You could have answers labeled 0-9 for any type of four problems per page and the answers that match those digits (say 3.375 seconds is an answer attached to digit 7). Hmmm...


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8 comments :

  1. AnonymousMarch 5, 2013 at 6:30 AM

    Was the goal for each student to open one lock? All the locks? Did you give them a worksheet that they did at there desks, or are these problems all around the room next to the locks?

    Having the lock open or not open is an awesome check for whether the answer is correct or not. This is good stuff.



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    Replies
    1. Amy zimmerMarch 5, 2013 at 7:19 AM

      Thanks for the feedback. When I did this, I had 6 order of operations problems in those plastic paper protectors. The students sit in groups of 4, so we put one lock and one problem per group. Every 5 minutes, the students had to move the lock with its problem one place...the students stayed put. I just let the students figure out who was going to open the lock. They could each open one if they do 4 problems, right?

      The most challenging part is not to let them jump ship and help the others. (tee-hee) You could absolutely let the students move and leave the locks in place. At the end, the students had to turn in one set of problems with their work shown. I don't even think I graded it in the end. Everyone was pretty happy.

      Delete
  2. AnonymousMarch 6, 2013 at 8:46 AM

    One thought I had when I read this was to make the locks part of a math narrative. You tell a story and students are trying to gather clues to further the story but each time something comes up in the story they have to use math and ingenuity to forward it. You could even have the next concept you introduce be behind one of the locks they open so its almost like a present inside of a present. The kids get engaged because they understand the material but they don't know what will come next. The tangible act of working with the locks gives them a sense of involvement in how the fiction will unfold.

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    Replies
    1. Amy zimmerMarch 6, 2013 at 9:04 AM

      Absolutely lovely...kind of like rescuing the princess using boundaries and equations and inequalities of lines! Thank you for enriching the task!

      Delete
  3. AnonymousMarch 16, 2013 at 4:25 PM

    love that idea! Definitely tells them right away if they got the right answer or not.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Carissa PeckMay 20, 2013 at 9:46 AM

    I do something like this for English too!

    Each station gets a paragraph with a different theme (relative clauses, participial phrases, parallelism, etc.) Each sentence has a number. Each paragraph had four mistakes (within the theme). Once they thought they found the mistakes they could check with the lock. They wrote down the sentences and moved onto the next one.

    If they finished faster than other groups (possible) they sat down and tried to correct the incorrect sentences on their own.

    Nice to see it done in math too!

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  5. Brick House ProjectJune 16, 2013 at 6:03 PM

    This is such a great idea! I don't teacher order of operations so I'm thinking maybe solving multi-step equations might be a good use for this.

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    Replies
    1. Amy zimmerJune 16, 2013 at 7:45 PM

      Let me know what you topics you want tweaks for and I will you shoot you back some ideas...I love bouncing ideas arou

      Delete

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Hi there, I'm Amy! A high school math teacher, poet, crafter, athlete, and mom. This blog features both math and teaching strategies, as well as some of my favorite recipes and everyday triumphs and struggles. Thanks for stopping by, feel free to share on Twitter, Facebook, or email me if you have any questions!

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