Algebra?!

Today we started working on algebra. When I asked the class if they knew what algebra was, most of them said that they had heard of it before, but weren't sure what it was. We talked about how it taking the information you have, and using it to solve for a symbol or letter in an equation that isn't known. This sounded complicated to them... until we started to do just that. The students worked in groups to solve pan balance problems - that is, problems using a balance scale to tell us when each side of balance was equal. So, by finding out that 2 squares was the same amount as 1 circle, 1 triangle equaled 3 diamonds, 3 circles equaled 2 triangles, 1 square equaled 1 diamond , 3 squares equaled 1 triangle, and 1 circle equaled 2 diamonds, and knowing that 1 square was equal to 1 unit, the students were able to find out the values for the circle, triangle, and diamond. It took a bit of work at first, but by the end, pretty much the whole class had the hang of it. I love teaching math, and it's always exciting to see 'the lights go on' in my students when they initially grasp a concept. After working together on it in class, they had the opportunity to work individually on some pan balance problems of their own. If you'd like to try these problems out for yourself (or, if you're one of my students and you didn't finish working on the problems in class), you can find the problems here. Enjoy... and good luck!

Using the pan balance to gather the information needed

Using the information gathered using the pan balance to solve for the unknowns

Some of the work the students did, using the information gathered to solve for the unknows (hey... that's algebra!!!!!)

Working individually in the computer lab, solving their own pan balance problems