Solving equations

[Tammy Kramer]

I had this great idea before school today. Feel free to apt it and use it as you can.

How is algebra like Christmas morning?
You get to see what's in the box!

Imagine a box wrapped with paper secured with tape and a ribbon. The ribbon is the plus minus. You have to undo it first. The tape is the multiply /divide - a different kind of bond; closer in proximity etc. You have to cut the tape to get to the box ( if you're going to save the paper like we always had to when I was a kid) opening the box lets you see what's inside doing the final calculation lets you see what X is. Remember, In some of the older texts, algebra was introduced with boxes before the letter X was used for the variable. If you are teaching multi-step equations with parenthesis etc, the analogy still works you just have a box inside a box.
Algebra really is like Christmas! You even guess what's in the box before you begin ( estimate)
- Tammy

[Mr Bird]

I used the Russian nesting dolls (matryoshka)early this year to help explain the chain rule in calculus. As in the second video below I had different functions written on the dolls. It was fun to tell the story that w to the dolls from my wife's sister when she was in Russia working with Wycliffe Bible Translators. 

[Tammy Kramer]

Thanks for sharing the videos!