Math Detectives - Creating mathematicians in a fun and engaging way!

"Why do you do what you do"?  This is a question that is asked of me on many occasions.  I'll be honest, it took me a while to craft a statement or answer to this question.  Why do I teach?  Why do I stay in education? I had to seriously think about my "why".  After careful deliberation and thought, I finally crafted my why!

I want to focus on my craft to be inspired and to inspire excellence in educators in order to cultivate and motivate inquisitive students through collaboration and positive conversations. 

In the end, my "why" is my students! 

So, as an educator what excites me?  Outside of my students, learning new strategies, best practices, and/or activities excites me.  When I learn something new I am excited to implement that strategy, best practice, or idea in the classroom.  This keeps me going!  My goal every new school year is to learn ONE new strategy, idea, or best practice that I can implement in my classroom.  So, I decided that every month I will share ONE idea, strategy, or best practice that has worked for me. In turn, I invite YOU to share what works for you!  I would love to learn from YOU! 

Over the last 25 years in education I have learned so much!  Today I will talk about "Math Detectives". Many years ago I was watching Amazing Race, one of my favorite television shows.  While watching an episode I asked myself, how can I implement this idea with students? After collaborating with my colleagues and my principal, we decided to give "Math Detectives" a try which proved to be very successful. We decided to make this a morning math group and opened it up to third, fourth, and fifth grade students who were proficient in basic math skills and problem solving and we would meet every other Tuesday at 7:00 a.m. We divided these 25-30 students into 5 or 6 groups.  Each group would receive an initial math problem to solve. After a correct solution, the group was given a clue that would take them to another classroom where they would find another math problem to solve.  This would continue a second time and then a third.  The third clue would take the students to the last classroom where they will find a treat. This past school year we introduced lock boxes to our math detectives. As students solved the math problems, the solution unlocked the box which housed the clue that takes the detectives to the classroom.  This was repeated two more times.  The last clue took students to their treat!  

Question:  What supplies are needed?

Answer: Each Math Detectives need a notebook and a pencil.  In a 30 minute period we created three questions and three clues.  The questions came from our state website and assessments.  The clues were created using classroom bulletin board information.

Question:  What kind of treats did you use?

Answer: Chips, candy, donuts.  I did apply for and received a grant that was used to purchase the lock boxes and some of the treats.

Question:  How did you decide who too invite to Math Detectives?

Answer: As a team we sent an email to third, fourth, and fifth grade teachers.  Each teacher chose 3 students who were proficient in basic math and problem solving skills.  We then sent a permission form to parents.  

Question:  How long do you run math Detectives?

Answer: We started in September and ran through May.