An Amazing teacher recently asked me to help her come up with an activity for her higher level math students to do when they finished their daily assignments. She wanted it to integrate technology, but focus with the basic concepts of the math topic (multi-digit x single digit numbers). Here is what I came up with…
The Amazing Math Race-US edition.
I wanted students to travel around the United States (mapping their progress as they went). As they landed in each location they would do two things: track their mileage, and be given a clue that lead them to a significant place within that city (or more accurately they read an article that would give some info about this place)–it would’ve been more fun for everyone if we could’ve actually visited the place, but I’m sure that funding comes in the next budget 😉 Students then read the article which contained some significant number piece they would need to solve the problem. They kept their work in a Notability file as they went. When they thought they had a correct answer, they would check using a QR code…if correct they would receive their next clue (which was actually just stored in Schology)…if not, much like in the actual Amazing Race, they would need to go back and try again before moving on to their next clue.
To me, the benefit of this lesson was the integration it offered. Students were both locating and reading about important places in our country. They were deciphering which information was needed in order to complete the challenge. They were using their math skills to answer real world problems. It was self-paced. And most importantly, they were engaged, because it was something different and interesting…plus, what student doesn’t like the competition of being the first to complete a race?!
My only real challenge with the activity was that I have yet to locate a great pin the map app. I wanted kids to not only be able to move from location to location using google maps, but also pin that location to use later. Unfortunately, none of the free map apps (with pins) would allow students to pin more than a couple of locations…and so the search goes on. Reluctantly, we moved forward without this aspect of the project.
As I move forward to similar projects, I will try to use google earth for kids to explore the locations of the clues (instead of articles). Google earth is such a wealth of information, and a powerful tool for students to explore. It would be amazing to see students learn to use it, and then explore with it outside of the lesson– narrowing in on a location from their reading, or from an article they are reading to learn more. This is especially important to many of my students, many of whom do not often have opportunities to leave their neighborhood. With the power of technology we can take the world and shrink down to the size of our tablet and bring at least some aspect of it it into their everyday lives. How lucky are we?!
Here are some of the resources from the race, enjoy taking a peek!
TE(A)CHing in a NEW AGE 