Survivor Geometry

Zzzz ... Zzzz ... What's going on? The nerve of some people. I can't believe that any student would dare to fall asleep during such an exhilerating lecture!

Zzzz ... Zzzz ... Hold on! It's me that's asleep!

Last spring I grew tired of the mundane day to day business of trying to teach Geometry to a bunch of rowdy teenagers who were more interested in discussing pop culture than in getting an education. I decided that the problem wasn't their boredom, but mine. I went home, laid on my bed and stared at the ceiling. Then it hit me. Survivor Geometry!

I got the idea from Karen Lyn Davis, the creator of CoolMath.com. I'd used her Survivor Algebra with my Algebra 1 students once before, but it didn't work as well as I thought it would so I tweeked some things to get the results that I wanted.

The students were put into tribes and could earn extra credit by getting the highest tribe average on an exam (called a challenge instead). Since my Algebra students didn't work together to help each other learn the material, I added a daily competitive element. At the beginning of the lesson I asked one member of each tribe a question from the reading assignment. The tribe earned 2 points if the student answered the question correctly and 1 point if the answer was incorrect, but the student gave an honest answer. The latter was to help eliminate the fear of giving a wrong answer.

After what I called the 8 question challenge, the students took the 2 problem challenge. I gave points to the first 3 tribes to get the correct answer to both problems. The 1st winner received 4 points, the 2nd winner received 2 points and the 3rd winner received 1 point. All of this occurred before the lecture in order to stick to the concept of having the students struggle a little with the material first.

I also rewarded each tribe that turned in 100% of the week's homework assignments with 5 points. The tribe with the most points at the end of the week earned extra credit.

This year, however, I will give the 2 problem challenge after the lecture and group work (called tribe time) in order to motivate the students to work even harder to learn the material. I will also have the tribes research a math concept at the beginning of the year and use the concept to choose their own tribe names. I really like Karen's tribe names, but last year my student's couldn't remember what their names were.

Last year's version of Survivor Geometry surpassed my expectations by far. My worst class was suddenly filled with engaged students. The competitions made learning the math more meaningful because there was immediate feedback and a little reward. In addition, the 2 problem challenge gave me an opportunity to quickly assess understanding. I will need to mix things up from time to time though. I don't want anymore snoring events to occur in my classroom.