Card Sharks in Math Class
In fifth grade math, students are learning the Order of Operations (you remember that age-old mnemonic device used to remember PEMDAS, "please excuse my dear Aunt Sally"). As a fun way to engage with the content, each student created their own equation for their classmates to solve. Students received four playing cards which served as the numbers they had to use. Then, taking turns, each student had to create an equation using a combination of parentheses, exponents, multiplication and division, and/or addition and subtraction, which the rest of the class then solved. Both Vanessa and the students had a lot of fun trying to solve all the problems!