To Review Math Concepts & Encourage Teamwork While Having a Little Fun at the Same Time

Best Practice Template

Event/Activity: Trashketball Initiative: Teaching Math (Review Activity)

Designed By/Role: Stephen Stanwood (MC), from Cy Hendrickson Team Name: Orr Academy HS

To review math concepts & encourage teamwork while having a little fun at the same time.

Grade/Age Level

Middle and high school students.

Ideal Group Size

3-5 teams of 3-5 people each. Ideally, all teams should have the same number of people, but it is not a major issue if this is not the case.

Length of Time

20-30 minutes

Materials and Budget

Blank paper, a trash can, and optionally a marker to mark different point values on the ground

Handouts

None—just one scrap piece of paper per question per person.

Preparation

Set up an empty trashcan next to a wall or, if you’re more ambitious, in the middle of the room. Mark points on the ground with a dry erase marker going away from this “hoop” (e.g. 1 point will be closest, 2 slightly farther away, 3 slightly farther away than that, etc). The precise distance is up to you, but the maximum number should be 7 or 8.

Procedure: Overview

32 Students break into teams. The instructor puts a math problem on the board. All students solve the problem on a piece of scratch paper (they may enlist the help of their teammates to do this). The instructor picks a student at random from each group and checks that student’s work. If the student has the answer correct, his/her team gets points & the ability to shoot for bonus points. Repeat until time expires

Procedure: Step-by-Step

(1) Break students into 3 to 5 teams. My experience thus far has been that students more willingly break into teams with the people sitting around them than they do into “random” teams (e.g. “You’re a 1/2/3/4/etc”).

(2) Ask a student to remind you what the NUMBER ONE RULE OF TRASHKETBALL is. For the record, this is “DON’T SHOOT WHEN IT’S NOT YOUR TURN.” The penalty for violating this rule is immediate reduction of that team’s points to 0. If the offending team already has 0 points, they move to negative-20 points (credit to Cy Hendrickson for this).

(3) Explain the basic procedure for the game (paraphrase the “Procedure: Overview” section), hand out scratch paper, and begin. Say something like “All right, let’s get started!”

(4) Put a problem up on the board (Smartboard/white board/chalk board). Ask all students to solve the problem and write down an answer on one of their pieces of paper. Each student may (and should) enlist the help of his or her teammates.

(5) Pick one student at random from each group. Obviously, though, you want to vary the students that you pick from round to round.

(6) Check those students’ work. If a student has the correct answer, he/she earns 10 points for his/her team. That student then has the ability to shoot for bonus points. To do so, he/she picks one of the points marked on the floor (1, 2, 4, 7, etc.), crumples up the paper with the correct answer on it, and shoots it at the trashcan. If the student makes the shot, their team gets the number of points marked on the ground under their feet.

(7) Repeat Steps 4-6 until you exhaust your supply of problems or the amount of time left for the activity.

(8) The team with the most points wins! Extra credit and candy are both good motivators.

Suggestions and Comments

Trashketball often gets a little chaotic towards the end and is probably best suited to be an end-of-class activity.