Artifact #4: Math wheel of fortune

Description:

This is a game I brought to class a few times before exams to review. In the classical Wheel of Fortune game, there is a word puzzle that is solved by first guessing letters and then guessing the whole phrase once enough letters are revealed. (And to make the game more exciting, players can win prizes by spinning a giant carnival wheel.)

In the classroom version of this game, students form small groups and each group gets a sheet of paper with the first part of a funny quote visible, and the second part of the quote left blank.

Then each student gets another sheet of paper (see the link below) with a problem corresponding to each letter appearing in the blank phrase. The answer to each problem is a whole number between 1 and the number of different letters appearing in the blank phrase: this tells students to write the letter in the boxes labelled by this number. The group that figures out the whole phrase first wins. (The solution for the example here is: "They never realized how many are born because of it.")

Reflection:

Since students are working in groups of three, this game actually ends pretty quickly (15-20 minutes), so it can be included even in a 50-minute review class without taking all the time. However, this exercise is rather just fun element of a class than a substantial learning experience: students is groups usually divide the problems among them, so one students usually think only at most a third of the problems, and there is little cooperation between the students.