Club 1-7-7: Part 2

Towards the end of last school year we hit Permutations and Combinations in the latter part of Advanced Algebra and I broke out in a cold sweat. All I could think about was the previous year when the students could NOT remember the definition and application of each term. Maybe it was the slide:

No way. Couldn't be, right? I mean just LOOK at that thing! A work of art! Notice how I used a stylistic font, coupled with an exquisite, non-standard white background theme ("parchment" to be exact). Throw in the underline on "Matters" and the all-caps on "DOESN'T" and you've got a winner!

In most circles this slide would be a step above the typical work found in most slidedecks. My "best" years of teaching produced fruit similar to this slide.

I started to think about a better way ... but ... if it weren't for that pesky song I had stuck in my head all day then maybe I could think. Then it hit me. The answer is...Disneyland! The Magic Kingdom! Specifically...

Come on...admit it. You have the song stuck in your head now, right? That's the "Small World" attraction at Disneyland if you've never been there. If you've never heard the song I will spare you the pain. At that moment I knew that in order to make it stick I had to make it a learning experience, not a teaching experience. The first slide is a teaching experience. I talk. They write.

A learning experience, though, (at least for me now) is to create some sort of get-it-stuck-in-your-head experience for the student - a video, a picture, an activity, a question - that their mind can't let go of. An experience that will run through their head all day just like the song.

My next best effort was this:

I throw the picture up there and ask the students to tell me about it. Most of them say "combo meal". Next, I ask them if it matters whether or not they put the fries first on the tray, or the burger, or the drink, etc. I show them a few more pictures of the same combo meal, but with the items rearranged, and they all agree that changing the order of the pieces did not change the actual combination itself.

One combo meal, a couple of pictures, no typing, no writing, 3 minutes worth of discussion, and they were all on board. Permutations? No need for taking pictures of ladies at the beauty salon.