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Multi-step Equations
This session is the most important foundation for the entire Algebra course. We will be discovering how to solve linear equations that require one or two steps to find a solution. If your student needs more time with the concepts explored on this page, please take all the time you need to really master the skills outlined on this page.
Download your Algebra Workbook Set #2
To help you with your daily practice, I've put together a set of four workbooks. This session, we are working through the first workbook in the second series: Algebra Set #2. We'll handle the other workbooks in this set future sessions. Plan to complete 3-4 pages per day. After you complete the pages, you may check the answer key.
Algebra Workbook: Equations
This is the first of four workbooks in Set #2. I've put together a set of videos that will walk you through selected problems in this workbook, Equations. Plan to complete 3-4 pages per day. After you complete the pages, you may check the answer key.
Measurement Practice: Converting Units
This is a fun and simple exercise in helping you keep your skills we learned back in Fractions and Decimals about converting units nice and sharp!
Math Activity: One-Step Equations Coloring Activity
We're going to learn how to solve equations, and it's easiest to start with doing this in only one step. This is a fun way to get introduced to the ideas we're going to use by doing a coloring activity at the end!
Math Activity: Two-Step Equations Coloring Activity
Now let's step it up a notch by adding a little more complexity to the problems. This is a fun way to get introduced to the ideas we're going to use by doing a coloring activity at the end!
Math Activity: Distributive Property Scavenger Hunt
After working through the workbook, it's time to practice those skills in a fun and challenging way! Print out the scavenger hunt clues, scatter them around with a little treat, and have fun solving each clue!
Math Activity: Linear Equation Task Cards
After working through the workbook, it's time to practice those skills in a fun and challenging way! This is a set of 28 task cards that you can either print out (or just peek at online) and work through to really practice your new skills.
Math Activity: Simplifying Expressions
This is a coloring activity that includes a set of problems that you can use to practice simplifying expressions. Expressions are different from equations because it's missing an equal sign (=). Just treat it like an equation, only you don't have to put the variables on one side.
Math Activity: Two-Step Math Maze
Do you enjoy mazes? Let's practice our math problem-solving skills while navigating through a fun maze!
Math Game: Multi-Step Equations Scavenger Hunt
You get two scavenger hunts this week because they are a really fun way to get really good at solving math equations. Are you ready for this one? It's a little more difficult than the first one above!
Math Game: Speed Dating Race
If you have a group of friends that you can work with on this one, definitely try this game out! Each person gets one equation, solves it, and keeps it as their own special problem. Then we match everyone up, you swap equations and try to solve theirs in only 60 seconds. They can help you if you need it - and then you switch to a new partner. Sound fun? Give it a try!
Math Game: He Said, She Said (Who's Right?)
Ever notice how you can get two different answers to the same question? That's what happened here with this set of math problems! Help me sort things out by figuring out who's right and where the other one went wrong.
Math Game: Puzzle Train
I love trains, puzzles, and math... so this activity is perfect for me! Let's do a set of problems that link up together to form different "trains" - you can tape these together to make them into bookmarks when you're done!
Math Activity: Special Cases of Linear Equations
This cart sorting activity will help you get familiar with these unusual special cases that come up once in a while with linear equations.
Math Activity: Word Translation
Translating from English to Math is a skill that we're going to work on throughout this course, because you need to be able to put down on paper what we see in the real world. Since word problems in algebra can get a bit complex, this is an easier introduction to learning how to translate simple ideas into math equations and expressions.
Math Activity: Algebra Word Problem Round Table
If you have two other friends you can work with, this activity will run a lot faster (otherwise you have to be the other two people also!) Each of you will contribute something toward finding a solution to each set of problems. Let's give it a try!
Advanced Level Math Class
Advanced students will focus on doing science and engineering-based calculations when working with practical applications of algebra. Each week you will have a new set of advanced math problems to work through. You'll need to have a firm grasp of all operations in algebra in order to work through the videos below.
This week, I've included two PreLab videos to make sure you have these skills well in hand. If it's been a while since you've done these types of calculations, please watch the videos carefully for a full review. (Hint: we'll be covering these concepts in Algebra Session #5, so this isn't meant to be a full course, simply a review.)
Universal Gravitation
Gravity is the reason behind books being dropped and suitcases feeling heavy. It’s also the reason our atmosphere sticks around and oceans staying put on the surface of the earth. Gravity is what pulls it all together, and we’re going to look deeper into what this one-way attractive force is all about. This set of Math Labs is what you can expect to see in a high school physics course. The math is all algebra, so grab your notebook and let's work through a set of labs together!
BONUS Math Challenge: Math Fair!
You’re invited to participate in our Math Fair! This is a chance for you to share how much fun math can be with others around you. Your job is to help shift their perception of math from being scary or frustrating to exciting and interesting by giving them experiences that are outside of a textbook or classroom setting.
Most of us know at least one person who doesn’t like math, and usually it’s because they didn’t have a positive experience with it when they were younger. We’re going to change that with our Math Fair by creating fun, happy, and engaging experiences for people to explore and discover in, and I need your help!
Students will demonstrate a math concept or topic they are really interested in by creating an activity, project, game or doing a demonstration or performance (like a magic show but with math). We want visitors of our Math Fair to experience math as they never have before, and this will be for everyone of all ages to enjoy, no matter what kind of education they have.
Math Challenge
Each session, I have a special Math Challenge for you to work on after you work through some of the content in this area of math. The goal for these special math challenges is for you to be able to communicate your great ideas with your family and friends, without them being in a math class or having any knowledge of a specific area of math. You should be able to convey your great ideas to most people that are interested in hearing what you have to share. Many families find this part of the math program exciting for them to participate in with their student!
Solution to Algebra Session #1 Math Challenge
“Ask spectator A to jot down any 3-digit number, and then to repeat the digits in the same order to make a 6-digit number (e.g., 394, 394.) With your back turned so that you cannot see the number, ask A to pass the sheet of paper to spectator B, who is requested to divide the number by 7.
'Don’t worry about the remainder,’ you tell him, ‘because there won’t be any.’ B is surprised to discover that you are right. Without telling you the result, he passes it on to spectator C, who is told to divide it by 11. Once again you state that there will be no remainder, and this also proves correct.
With your back still turned, and no knowledge whatsoever of the figures obtained by these computations, you direct a fourth spectator, D, to divide the last result by 13. Again the division comes out even. This final result is written on a slip of paper which is folded and handed to you. Without opening it, you pass it on to spectator A.
‘Open this,’ you tell him, ‘and you will find your original 3-digit number.’“
Writing a three-digit number twice is the same as multiplying it by 1,001. This number has the factors 7, 11 and 13, so writing the chosen number twice is equivalent to multiplying it by 7, 11 and 13. Naturally when the product is successively divided by these same three numbers, the final remainder will be the original number. (This problem is given by Yakov Perelman in his book Figures for Fun, Moscow, 1957.)
