The Sum of our Knowledge

Many times, we use the same old icebreakers at the beginning of a class:  go around the room, introduce yourself, your major, a hobby or something interesting about yourself . What if instead, we could get our students working together and engaging in mathematical problem-solving from the get-go? Today’s post is the first in a four-part series where we'll present several ideas and strategies to accomplish this, most of which are appropriate for any level of mathematics course. Review Dominos We have found that this activity works great in many situations-- Our favorites uses: An icebreaker on the first day of class, while also reviewing material from a previous class. Low stakes group work to practice basic computation relating to newly learned material on an average class day A group warm-up, reviewing material from a previous day that is crucial to know before beginning class. A small-group project before an exam review. This activity requires a small amount of preparation up fro