Math Wars

BC Calculus

Math Wars is a fun way for teachers to review a concept, taking up very little class time, and giving the students a little competition as well as a chance to productively use their cell phones in class. Best of all,  MasterMathMentor's policy during the Pandemic has to make material FREE! and I see no reason to change that.

Math Wars, the BC Calculus version, has 21 "quizzes" each with 5 multiple choice problems.  Unlike many sample AP questions, these are meant to be answered in at most 3 minutes and many should take less than a minute. (assuming the student understands the concept)

Students enter their answers on a phone app which gives instant feedback. They receive a score (0 - 100) based on correctness and also the speed they answer the questions. So students are engaged in a friendly competition among themselves.

This is how Math Wars is best played: The teacher chooses a topic from the ones  listed at the bottom of this page. A PDF containing the 5 problems appears on the classroom screen.   This PDF has a QR code and the students use their phone's camera to load the App on their phone.  To the right is a sample. The screen shows the topic (Sample), the maximum amount of time allowed,

(5 minutes, 30 seconds) and a tab to start the timer.  Once they start, they cannot stop.  They enter the answers for each problem. They can change it until they press Submit. At that time, the answer is locked in and they are told whether the answer is correct (green) or incorrect (red).

Once they submit all their answers, the timer stops. A score is generated from 0 to 100. It is based on the point value of the problems (they are worth 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9 points) and the amount of time taken.  The score is created with these parameters:

•    Problems correct taking half the allotted time or less - score is 100.
•    Problems correct taking exactly the allotted time  - score is 50.
•    Other scores are proportional to time taken & problems correct.

So they are racing to get the 5 problems done but they also need to be careful. Hence Fanucci the Cat playing Yoda's admonition on the title page: "Problems you Solve, Careful You Must."   It should set up some healthy competition between students and they can copy their results to the clipboard and email or text you or their friends with their results.
 

What is nice about this is that teachers have a warmup exercise for each topic - and these are in the order of the MasterMathMentor BC Manual. While you are taking roll and doing other housekeeping at the start of class, the students are instantly engaged.  Once complete, you can go over the problems. Solutions will be available soon.

Not only will we have the version covering every topic, we will have a scrambled version as well.  This allows a thorough review of the curriculum around time for the AP Exam.

Of course, you can choose not to use the game option and simply give these out as quizzes.   Or you could play it as a class with students having a paper copy of the quiz and the app is on the computer screen.

Solutions

Since these quizzes are thoroughly in construction, the total solution package as offered in AB is not yet available. It will be as soon as all the quizzes are complete.

Free Downloads BC Calculus Math Wars by Topic.

(Double-click on underlined topic to load. )

Free Downloads BC Calculus Math Wars Scrambled.

(Double-click on underlined topic to load. )

The url and the QR code to the game app is on each of the quizzes above. A generic url and QR code that will allow you to choose the topic number is below.

mastermathmentor.com/mmm/mathwars.ashx

Math Wars BC Solutions

Some tips:

• It is suggested that teachers do not put the problem page on the screen until everyone is settled, has their phone out, and is ready to go.
• Every attempt has been made to get the 5 problems on one page. Sometimes that isn't possible. In that case, I suggest changing not showing the logo section at the top of the page and/or lowering the view percentage until all problems can be seen.
• Students will always find a way to cheat. The easiest way to is solve the problems but not start the timer. I suggest that every student immediately look to their right and left to be sure that their neighbor has started the timer.
• Students might decide to text each other to share answers. Little you can do about that but texting takes some time and time should not be wasted here.  But that is why I do not suggest using Math Wars as a testing tool while using the app. It is just meant to be fun.
• These problems were purposely created as to not require graphing calculators although some might required basic calculations. If a graphing calculator is needed, the problem will specify taht information.
• Once a student uses the app for a topic, they cannot use it again for that topic. This is intentional as a student who gets a problem incorrect might try and quit the app and start again.  However, if teachers use the app on their screen, they might want to use it again for another class. There is a reset:  !Fanucci will allow the topic to start again.
• The total time represents a maximum. Hopefully students can do it in less. However, this assumes that students understand the concept tested, a big assumption. If they don't, then no amount of time will help.