Annual Idita-math Competition By Jared Cochran

Having 96 students,  I decided to break students up into 6 equal teams.

Each team had 16 students and each team is given a team name based on one of their favorite mushers.  2009 teams were: Team Buser, a Team Mackey, a Team King, a Team Seavey, a Team Swenson, and a Team Jonrowe.

We started each class with a daily warm-up.

My daily math consists of 5 math problems, in which they have 5 minutes to try and finish.  Every question they answer correctly moves their musher 2 miles on the trail. In the back of my classroom, I have a giant 8 foot by 5 foot map of the Iditarod trail.  I map the student’s results on a daily basis by moving a little musher.

The ultimate goal is for the teams to move their musher the entire 1049 miles of the Iditarod trail.

Jared

View a PDF document containing samples of Jared’s math problems by clicking here.  Jared’s math problems are aligned for 6th grade but are easily converted to other grade levels. Please note, we do not include answers to these problems in this document.  You may print the document for use with your students

• Depending on the grade level you teach, adjust the questions accordingly.