We Speed Dated in Calculus Today!

Monday, April 11, 2016 - Post a Comment

I needed an idea to review a whole bunch of different problems in a limited time frame...and I am tired of explaining all of them!

Enter...Speed Dating in Math Class!

I found this idea for Speed Dating in math class on Kate Nowak's blog (see this post here...Kate Nowak Speed Dating)

Here is how I did it:

I gave a practice multiple choice test from a previously given AP Calculus test last Friday.

I graded them...seriously ugh.

I went through the first 10 questions and found students that got one of the first 10 right. I designated these students as the "question expert" for that question. I sat those students around the outside of the room.

I then sat the other 18 students in groups of either 1 or 2 around a ring through the inside of the room. These students sat facing a "question expert."

I set a timer on my computer and projected the countdown on the screen in the front of the room.

The question expert was responsible for explaining that question to the one or two students sitting in front of them.

Every two minutes, the timer went off and the students stood up and moved to the next question expert.

Here is my class...speed dating :)

Things I loved about this activity:

The timer really helped me keep track of time. When it went off, the kids stood up and switched. I didn't get sidetracked by someone asking me a question or anything else.

The "questions experts" looked proud of themselves! It wasn't necessarily the "smartest" kids that were the question experts.

Everyone was moving and working - they only had two minutes!

The kids loved that I called this speed dating.

Things to change for next time:

Each time I do this activity, the question experts need to change.

A disadvantage to this activity is that the question experts do not get to learn anything new. They certainly help me by explaining what I would have had to explain a lot of times, but they didn't get their questions answered.

Have you ever tried speed dating in math class? What things worked for you?