Here is my first attempt at creating an Explore-Flip-Apply type lesson.  These are basically all in draft form.  I would like to be able to do this EVERY DAY.  Not 100% sure that is going to happen.  So far, I have created the first unit, which consist of about 5-6 lessons on solving equations.  Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.  I plan on posting 1 lesson per day for the next few days while I work on Unit 2 (graphing).  I have tried to source pages that inspired me.

Class: Elementary Algebra
Class Time: 55 min, 3 days a week for 15  weeks
Topic: Order of operations, exponents, & the distributive property
Inspiration:

• Negative Numbers Squared: http://mathforum.org/library/drmath/view/61633.html
• Order of Operations is (morally) Wrong:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9h1oqv21Vs&sns=em
• PEMDAS vs GEMS:
  http://goo.gl/buOdcQ
  http://goo.gl/JRdu9C
  http://jonoaks.com/pemdas-is-not-a-word/

Explore: Order of Operations (key) |Dist. Property (key)

Flip: Order of Operations (MP4) | Dist. Property (MP4)

Apply: Order of Operations (key) | Dist. Property (key)

Comments:  I struggled with this one.  Sometimes when the concepts are very simple, I am tempted to just TELL THEM.  But I know from experience that they always mess up the order of operations.  So I want them to realize that we need to have some sort of order, else we get different answers.  I want them to see how this relates to evaluating polynomials (degree > 1).  I want to point out the tricky problems that are actually just poorly worded problems (e.g. Evaluate  5÷xy for x = 2, y = 3).  No self-respecting mathematician would every write something like this due to the ambiguity it presents.    I decided against providing a broader application context.  I did not want to obfuscate the simplicty of how we combine terms mathematically.

With regard to the distributive property, I am trying the “Area of a rectangle approach for the first time. I am including “Extension problems” for some of the lessons.  This is for groups who finish early.  I try to show where  this topic is used later in this course.   NCTM Illuminations has a lesson on this that extends to factoring that might help. Factoring is the last unit of the term and  I may consider going in this direction later.

I have tried to link these to my Google Drive.  I have the comments function open if you want to comment directly on the document, feel free. You may, of course, leave comments below.

I find that I kind of cave on the “Flip” part of the lesson.  I bassically digress back to direct (Khan-like) instruction.  This is the longest video in the first unit. Most are under 20 min. I have embedded a quiz (using Camtasia Studio 8).  When I do this, I get a report sent to me about how they did and how much of the video they viewed.