From: Claudia (for Teacher2Teacher Service)
Date: Mar 17, 1998 at 17:37:05
Subject: Re: Order of operations: group activities

There is an excellent software (DOS) program published by IBM several years 
ago called the Mathematics Exploration Toolkit. It had "defer" programs with 
worksheets that students completed as part of the package.

The basic idea was to give students a list of numbers and operations, with 
the goal of creating an expression using only those numbers and symbols, with 
any "grouping" symbols they wanted to reach the goal number. 

If you don't have access to the software, you can create your own. For 
example, using the four numbers 3, 8, 3 and 9, and only the four basic 
operations and appropriate grouping, create an expression that will give a 
target number of  -7/3 .

Good luck.

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