Topics: Starter | Arithmetic | Calculator | Puzzles

• Helen, Monmouth
• Wednesday, September 06, 2006
• "When entering 4x4-3x3 the calculator does not follow BIDMAS and therfore was confusing for some students."
• Transum,
• Saturday, September 09, 2006
• "Teachers please note. This broken calculator does not obey the BODMAS (BIDMAS) convention. Students will soon find this out themselves. It would be a valuable teaching point to highlight that not all calculators do. Some older calculators will carry out each operation as soon as its key is pressed. Try an example if you are not sure how your calculator behaves.
  
  2 + 3 x 4 =
  The answer will be 14 for a BODMAS calculator and 20 for an LTR calculator
  See also Reverse Polish Notation"
• Kaye Rumpel, Hope Valley College
• Friday, September 15, 2006
• "The pupils really enjoyed working out the numbers 1 to 20. It created a good buzz in the classroom. I told them in advance that the calculator was a basic calculator and therefore worked from LTR. It was interesting to see which pupils came up with the most concise answers. It was more than a 10 minute starter."
• Olivia, New Zealand
• Saturday, September 06, 2008
• "Agree with Kaye. Really engrossed the kids and last for almost half an hour. Very enjoyable."
• Miss P, Liverpool
• Tuesday, December 16, 2008
• "I used this for my bottom set children in Primary school year 5 and it kept them busy for 50 minutes out of an hour lesson. Really impressed, please use more of this."

 

• Chloe Burns, Holyrood Secondary School
• Monday, November 01, 2010
• "I thought this was a really frustrating starter but it was very enjoyable. It took me 20 minutes to finish but it was worth it in the end."
• Transum,
• Sunday, April 03, 2011
• "Thanks for your feedback. A link has now been added to a similar activity using a BIDMAS calculator."
• Year 7 And 8, T, D, J , L
• Monday, September 24, 2012
• "It's good for learning Maths. It works your brain."
• Mr R, St Peters
• Tuesday, September 25, 2012
• "Very good starter. I like these starters where children of all levels can join in and get the concept, whilst the highly motivated can be really challenged."

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This starter has scored a mean of 4.1 out of 5 based on 183 votes.

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