Cut ups Activity

Duration: 40 minutes
Subject: most subjects (the example provided is a review of Precalculus functions that I do at the beginning of the Calculus course)
Material: The cut ups should be cut, and ideally laminated.

Cut ups (pdf here) are a hands on way of reviewing material. Students get 9 (or sometimes 16) cards with descriptions on each side. They need to place these cards in a 3x3 (or 4x4) shape, and each pair of touching sides must match.

Here is an example of three cards that match correctly. The graph facing "Inverse of..." is indeed the correct graph. The graph facing "Three real zeros" does indeed have three real zeros.

Notes:
Some students tend to jump on the first matching they find without considering that other cards might also match that particular position.

There are different ways of differentiating the exercise to make it less difficult. For example, the cards can be printed on different colored papers. The three cards from the top row could be of a different color, so that students only work with these first. Or the 4 corners can be of a different color. And so on.