I'm So Excited to Review for State Testing....

....said no teacher ever.

Except this year.

Because I am.

I'm planning a 3 day study session for state testing.  I've mapped out the most important topics to review to help my kids show what they know.

But the awesome part is I'm planning to do it Escape Room style, so I think it will be awesome!

This will for sure be the biggest Breakout I've ever attempted but I think it will fine.  I'm going to have 8 boxes, but each with just one lock.  Each box will be focused on a different topic:  circles, surface area, factoring/distributive property, solving equations, percents, scale drawing, statistics, proportional relationships and one general review.

I'm going to put a link to a review video on each puzzle so the kids can watch a quick review if they need help.  The boxes can be solved in any order.  As teams break in to a box, they will find a piece of one final puzzle and some money.

The whole point of the Breakout will be to collect as much money as possible.  At the end of the Breakout, we will have an auction where teams can bid on items to buy.

One of the other things that I'm really excited about is that teams will also be able to earn extra money for the auction by exhibiting good teamwork and collaboration.  I based this on the idea of participation quizzes from Mathematical Mindsets by Jo Boaler.  I adapted the rubric from the book to this situation, and went over these expectations before we began.  Click below to download what I used with my class as I introduced this activity.  I was REALLY pleased with how this helped.  I talked specifically with my classes about the fact that I didn't want them to "divide and conquer" the puzzles, but to work together.  I only had groups in one class that split up....most groups worked together as I asked them to!

Teams that finish all of the boxes can earn additional money by completing the final puzzle, which they get the pieces to when they break in to all of the boxes.

At first I thought I was going to plan all of the puzzles...but then I realized that I could use stuff that I already have.  So I've created a few puzzles from scratch, but for several of them, I've just used existing worksheets or puzzles and found a way to turn them into an escape room style puzzle.

I used these puzzles as several of the games:
 Graveyard Scale Drawing Scavenger Hunt
Percent of a Number Warm Up Activity
7th Grade Review Puzzles

If you teach 6th or 8th grade, these might work better for you:
6th Grade Review Puzzles
8th Grade Review Puzzles

Some of these were ready to go as puzzles.  Some of them needed some minor adjustments to make into a puzzle.  Read more in this post about how I made some minor adjustments to turn things I had into a puzzle.

Oh, how I love Basketball in March!

      I sit on my couch, watching the last game of what has been an insane weekend of basketball.  I am a college basketball fanatic, and since Thursday I have watched a LOT of basketball.  What a weekend of basketball it has been....I've watched a #1 finally lose to a #16.  I've seen buzzer beaters, 20 point comebacks and 20 point losses by really good teams.

     And as I watch all of this, one of the things that I keep thinking is....I can't wait to talk to the kids about this!  We did a fun simulation of the first round of the tournament, so I think they will get a kick out of the unexpected things that have happened in March 2018.

     The simulation was super easy to set up, and only took about 10 minutes in class.  Plus it was a great way to introduce the idea of  simulations to my class the week before spring break when it was hard to get them to care about anything!

     I based it all on these statistics:

         I used a variety of materials to create simulations for each of the games.  Here was what I used:

• 1 vs. 16--bag of a bunch of colored blocks with just one white block to represent the 16.
• 2 vs. 15--bag of 19 red blocks and 1 blue block to represent the 15.
• 3 vs. 14--rolled a 6-sided die with 5 sides for the 3 and 1 side for the 14
• 4 vs. 13--rolled a 10-sided die with 8 sides for the 4 and 2 sides for the 13
• 5 vs. 12--rolled a 6-sided die with 4 sides for 5 and 2 sides for the 12
• 6 vs. 11--spun a spinner with 5 spaces for 6 and 3 spaces for the 11
• 7 vs. 10--spun a spinner with 3 spaces for the 7 and 2 spaces for the 10
• 8 vs. 9--flipped a coin

Then the kids filled out the form below, and then we simulated the entire first round.  We went through each of the trials listed above 4 times, and I made it clear that students had to have them in the correct order.  I made everyone stand up, and as soon as their bracket was no longer perfect, they had to sit down. In every single hour, every kid was sitting down by the time we got to the 4-13 games!  Click on the picture below to download this form.

     This was really fun.  I know I'll do it again next year.  One thing I think I'll do differently next year is have the KIDS design how to test the simulation.  I will demonstrate how to pick your materials with one of the games, and then assign each table one game to decide how to simulate.  Since each table will only have to come up with 1 part of the simulation, I still think it will be fast.  But since the kids will have to make some decisions about how to set up the simulation, I think they will get more out of it.

     After we finished the simulation, I showed this short 3-minute video explaining the odds of getting a perfect bracket.  The professor in the video does a great job of explaining the math behind why a perfect bracket is so hard to get.