This is a game that can be played by two to four players or teams. It can also be played by individuals challenging themselves to create a line of four cells in the grid on the right of the screen. The winner is the first player to claim a line of four cells either horizontally, vertically or diagonally. A Transum virtual trophy is available for the winner.

If a fixed amount of time is available for playing this game an alternative way of determining the winner (assuming a line of four cells is not claimed by either player) is by finding the sum of the cells claimed by each player after an equal number of turns. The highest sum wins.

The BIDMAS Game would make a worthwhile yet exciting 'Finisher' for a Mathematics lesson. If pupils do not have their own computing devices if could be played with this page projected for all to see. A teacher versus the class game would motivate pupils to work together to find solutions while learning from the elegant and creative solutions the teacher produces!

The game was orininally designed for those learning about the order of operations in Mathematics.

People have found that the acronym BIDMAS is a useful way to remember the order of operations. Just don't forget that after brackets and indices, multiplication and division should be calculated in the order they appear from left to right. The same is true for addition and subtraction.

• Brackets,
• Indicies,
• Division,
• Multiplication,
• Addition,
• Subtraction.

Try this BIDMAS online exercise.

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