One of the most effective resources I explored this week was Calculation Nation via NCTM. One of the games that required the deepest understanding and most strategy was Factor Dazzle: https://calculationnation.nctm.org/Games/Game.aspx?GameId=A0537FC6-3B08-4AFC-9AD6-0CC5E3BC9B86.
Factor Dazzle allows you to challenge yourself or another player to a game of identify factors. You earn points based on the numbers you choose and the factors you are able to identify. This reminded me of a common misconception that students had when we started working with prime and composite numbers, factors and multiples. That is, since all even numbers are composite, all odd numbers must be prime.
The following lesson has been developed using T-GEM (Khan, 2007, 2010, 2012). While traditionally used in Science classrooms, Khan’s research has proven T-GEM to be effective at developing inquiry skills and conceptual understanding (Khan, 2012).
Generate:
- Students complete a Think-Pair-Share about how they identify prime and composite numbers. Teachers will look for use of appropriate vocabulary.
Evaluate:
- Students will individually play this version of Factor Dazzle.
- On Popplet, they will write some of the strategies they used for playing the game.
- In another web of Popplet, they will comment on their strategy for identifying prime and composite numbers.
- Students view the following videos and practice links on their Khan Academy accounts. Results are emailed to the classroom teacher for formative assessment.
Modify:
- Students will then pair up to challenge each other to this version of the game: https://illuminations.nctm.org/activity.aspx?id=4134
- They will increase the difficulty of the game incrementally as appropriate.
- Students submit a written response based on the change to their strategy of determining factors and multiples.
Khan, S. (2012). A hidden gem. The Science Teacher, 79(8), 59 – 62.
Hi Allison
I like the fact that shared a lot of useful resources. I was not able to Calculation Nation on my MacBook using the Chrome browser — I’ll try a different browser later. I lost to the computer on the Factor Game :(. I also like the fact there are is no advertising on illuminations.nctm.org website. I often see teachers using websites with advertising.
I wonder if students would get distracted by the many different games available to use.
Christopher
Hi Allison,
Thanks for sharing this lesson idea. My students still struggle with prime and composite numbers. It comes up from time to time and reminds me how much they struggle with this concept and that I need to go back and review it.
Which game did your student enjoy the most? I try not to introduce too many resources to them at one time as they get distracted by flipping back and forth between games and end up accomplishing nothing.
Nicole
Hi Christopher & Nicole,
I don’t actually have students to test this lesson on this year. You bring up an excellent point/design flaw. I have not experienced this personally when I was in the classroom but I can definitely see it being an issue. In addition, I also considered that this lesson might span over a couple of sessions as a center activity.
Allison
Hi Allison:)
Great resources and thanks for sharing. I will definitely use this in my teaching. Seems like no matter what the topic in math, my students struggle with it all. They are missing the foundational skills for math and its concerning that we cannot just slow down because then the rest of the curriculum does not get covered. I am an LST teacher and I have two numeracy blocks and these blocks are only 30 minutes; its stressful as a teacher because I want my students to be able to understand but 30 minutes just flies by. I can also see the frustration on my students’ faces.