Jon Oaks

Tag: Order of Operations

  • PEMDAS is NOT a Word

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    Jon Oaks
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    Here is why I believe that the PEMDAS method for remembering the order of operations should NOT be used: 1.  PEMDAS is not a word.  In general, I believe that for mnemonic devices to have the greatest impact, they should be easy to remember words.  PEMDAS is not easy to remember and PEMDAS is not…

  • Pi Day Exponent Activity

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    Jon Oaks
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    This year on Pi Day I was teaching exponents, so I created an activity surrounding many of the common errors that I see many students make when working with expressions involving exponents.  I have attached the file to this post, and I would hope that people would know what to do with it, but let…

  • Math Games for Integers, Multiplication, and Combining Like Terms

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    I have some slightly under-prepared students semester, so I suggested to them that they should try to work on their basic skills outside of class.  However, this requires me to provide some recommended resources to them, and these are what I have discovered: Multiplication Factoris – Tetris-style game for multiplication facts. Penguin Jump – Fun Multiplication Game that can…

  • GCF, LCM, and Order of Operations

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    In my Basic Mathematics class we just finished discussing the order of operations, and students always seem to have a problem with it, especially when division comes before multiplication (Sally has always told them otherwise).  Today we discussed finding the Greatest Common Factor (GCF) and Least Common Multiple (LCM), another topic that students sometimes seem…

  • Pre-Algebra and Algebra Resources

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    Jon Oaks
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    A few months ago I had students in my Basic College Math class create a game about fractions.  One student created “Fraction Bingo”.  I decided to search the web to see if there were printable bingo sheets available.  Well, there were, along with some other activities that I found on the same website from Holt,…