I have been hearing this question all over the school these days and it has really started to make me feel like an unaware millennial! Stemming from the motivation and encouragement within a Middle School Math Teachers Group on Facebook, I replicated this activity in my math 7 class. I launched the lesson by shouting the notrious question right at my students. If you are ever looking for a way to simultaneously shock, confuse, and gain buy-in from "too-cool-for-school" middle schoolers- this is the way!

I started my lesson by explaining that we were going to do a 1-day high school-level lesson. Students looked a little nervous but quickly realized that sigma notation was WAY easiert than they though. I showed students the Greek and mathematical meanings for sigma and then explained the parts of sigma notation. Once students realized that we were "just evaluating", they were eager to begin. I made a stack of sigma problems and the kids got going. 

The BEST part about this project was the faces of the other grades walking through the hallway seeing these posters. I've never heard so many kids say they cant wait to learn this in math class. Try it out :)