Mental Math Activity

Duration: 10 minutes
Subject: anything (the example provided is for Integration or polynomials)

This very short in-class activity (pdf here) is designed to be presented to students at the very beginning of the unit on integration. I simply called it "Mental Math" as students won't be allowed to use any material. You can design "Mental Math" games for almost any section of any class. It needs not be Calculus, or even Math. But it applies mostly when questions are short and easy to solve. It is my experience that the students get so focused on keeping the letters memorized that the class turns completely quiet. Here is how it works:

There are 5 basic polynomial integration questions that the teacher will project on a screen. Each of them is a multiple choice. However, teachers shouldn't show the multiple choice answers immediately, as that would enable students to simply differentiate instead of integrating.

Once students have figured out the answer, the teacher will show the multiple choices. As usual, each answer is associated with a letter, but note how the multiple choice letters aren't necessarily A B C D E but may be P L S T R or anything else. Students have to memorize the letter of the answer for each question.

After they have answered the 5 questions, students will have collected 5 letters along the way. To complete the activity, there is a final general question and the answer is an anagram of the 5 letters. It is best when the final question is also related to the material that is being studied.