Learning Mental Math through Card Games

Posted by David Wetzel

Playing “War” with a deck of cards now has whole new meaning - helping students understand math operations concepts.

This card game helps students develop the ability to apply math concepts in a way that no 100’s of worksheets or 100’s of extra homework problems could ever help.

The basic procedure of turning up one card to determine which has the largest card wins. In this new version of “War” Ace’s are removed, Jacks = 11, Queens = 12, and Kings = 13.

Variations of War

Addition War—Players turn up two cards and add, player with the highest sum wins.

Subtraction War—Players turn up two cards and subtract the smaller number from the larger, player with the greatest difference wins.

Product War—Players turn up two cards and multiply, player with greatest product wins.

Fraction War—Players turn up two cards and make a fraction, using the smaller card as the numerator, player with greatest fraction wins.

Improper Fraction War—Players turn up two cards and make a fraction, using the larger card as the numerator, player with the greatest fraction wins.

Integer Addition War—(Black cards are positive numbers; red cards are negative) Players turn up two cards, player with greatest sum wins.

Integer Product War—(Black cards are positive numbers; red cards are negative) Players turn up two cards, player with greatest product wins.

PEMDAS War—Players turn up three cards and use what ever math operations they wish, player with the greatest answer wins. (no exponents available)

Reverse PEMDAS War—Players turn up three cards and use what ever math operations they wish, player with the lowest absolute value wins. (no exponents available)

These are only some of the variations the game of “War” can be adapted to help students develop a greater understanding of math.

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“As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality”

Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955)

An Interactive Graphing Website

Posted by David Wetzel

Graphing algebra equations is a difficult concept for many students to grasp in beginning algebra courses. Especially when graphing quadratic equations, symmetries, and solving equations.

Maths Net has developed an interactive graphing program which allows students to adjust points on the “X” and “Y” coordinates on graphs. This allows students to inquiry into what quadratic equations, symmetries, and solving equations graphs and other graphs look like using various numerical values.

There are well over 200 different activities on this interactive website. Students are able to create their own diagrams and change them using a mouse to see the effect these changes have on the graphs and on the algebra involved.

Topics include coordinates, lines and curves. Some activities are algebra lines, find the function, and graphs with more than one line.

This interactive website is an excellent resource for learning about graphs or reinforcing graphing concepts.

Online High School Biology Resource

Posted by David Wetzel

Biology Hippo Campus is a project of the Monterrey Institute for Technology and Education (MITE). The goal of Hippo Campus is to provide high-quality, multimedia content on general education subjects to high school and college students free of charge.

Biology Hippo Campus was designed as part of Open Education Resources (OER), a worldwide effort to improve access to quality education for everyone. Hippo Campus content has been developed by some of the finest colleges and universities in the world and contributed to the National Repository of Online Courses (NROC), another MITE project. NROC makes editorial and engineering investment in the content to prepare it for distribution by Hippo Campus. Both Hippo Campus and NROC are supported by The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

Biology Hippo Campus is designed for High School Science.

Sample of Biology Resources

• Cell Structure and Function
• Genes
• Principles of Heredity
• Biological Diversity
• Energetics of Life

Visit the website at Biology Hippo Campus