New Factor Pair Spoons Game

By Jon OaksMar 08, 2013
The Factor Pair Spoons Game is a new game that was inspired by participants in the Professional Development Series that I'm conducting every month this semester at my college.  Last month's topic was 'Playing Games to Learn Math' and I asked the participants to come up with a game for a topic that they felt was a difficult topic for students.  This game is a variation on what they came up with.  The spoons game was one of their suggestions, but they ended up turning it into more of a rummy-style game because they thought that the spoons might become too chaotic…
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FOIL is for BAKED CHICKEN

By Jon OaksJan 24, 2012
Here is why I believe that the FOIL method for multiplying two binomial expressions should NOT be used: The underlying premise of the FOIL method is that students must first be able to identify a binomial.  However, most instructors do not seem to stress enough that the FOIL method can only be used to multiply two binomials.   We can only speculate on the reason for why they might not do this – Maybe they only teach multiplying binomials so they do not need to make any distinction or maybe whey wrongly assume that students will be able to identify…
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Factoring Activities and More

By Jon OaksDec 08, 2010
A few weeks ago a colleague of mine was in need of an activity for Factoring.  He was ahead of his pacing chart and wanted something to fill up some class time with.  I referred him towww.ilovemath.org, which has hundreds of free activities to download.  Here is a list of a few that I have successfully used the in the classroom:Solving Equations Writing AssignmentTwo-Step Equation Concentration Partner Problems SlopeLinear Relationships Sudoku Wartime Battle (Solving Systems of Equations)MATHO! Logarithm Game Cutout - FactoringPowers of i (This is a student favorite) Unit Circle Trigonometry (Follow the White Rabbit)The Game of Greed (Basic Statistics)
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