Complete Guide for Maths Teachers using Deck.Toys

There are so just many features in Deck.Toys that can be used to engage Mathematics learners effectively – but how do you begin? In this blog post, we will explore the best way to build your next Maths lesson in Deck.Toys and set your students on their Lesson Adventure!

Tip #1: Use Existing Worksheets & Make Them Interactive

All you have to do is drag-and-drop your ppt, pptx, doc, docx, pdf, jpg or png files directly into the Deck Builder. Your worksheets will automagically be converted to a Deck.Toys Slide Activity in seconds! If you are using Google Slides or Google Docs from Google Drive, you can use the ‘Insert from Google Drive’ function in the Slide Activity as well. 

Once the worksheet is in the Map as a Slide Activity, you can then add Slide Apps to make the entire worksheet interactive! Put in a Text or Draw Slide App for a free-form response. 

You can even include the Photo Slide App that allows the student to take a photo of their written work for submission! That’s really perfect for problems where you want to see the student do their working in detail!

Watch this video to see how it’s done: https://youtu.be/HHq_h3Sy0qI

Tip #2: Apply the Lock and MCQ Slide Apps

The Lock is the most popular Slide App used in Maths decks because you usually can have only 1 answer for the given problem. As long as the student gets the correct answer, the answer will be self-validated and require no further marking, unlike a free-form response. 

For example you can place this question “Simplify 6/42” in a Slide Activity, then add a Lock Slide App. Follow the steps below to configure the answer using the Numbers Lock.

When the student gets to this particular question, he needs to key in 1/7 correctly in the number pad before being able to proceed to the next activity. 

Similarly, you can use the MCQ Slide App to provide a multiple choice question. Answers will be known immediately by the student after attempting to answer successfully. You can drag the MCQ Slide App icon to the Slide Area to make the Slide truly interactive, and populate multiple MCQ questions directly on the slide area. 

This example shows 2 MCQ Slide Apps placed within the Slide image of a trigonometric diagram and the student will need to answer both of the questions before they can move on to the next activity.

The MCQ Slide App supports TeX maths Expression entry. Type your TeX expressions within the symbols $$…. $$ when you enter it in the Teacher’s View. The maths formulae would appear automatically in the Student’s View.

Tip #3: Utilize the Versatile Drag-n-Drop Slide App

The Drag n Drop Slide App is an amazingly versatile Slide App that you can do to make many kinds of maths problems interactive! They are designed such that students must get the answer correct before proceeding to the next activity. Answers are self-validated, so no marking is necessary! 

There are two types of Drag n Drop configurations: Jigsaw and Target mode. The Jigsaw mode creates draggable elements from an existing slide where the image is already in the right sequence. The draggable elements will be randomized in the study set just like a jigsaw puzzle, and students are required to move these elements back to the original positions.

This is an example using the Jigsaw mode for fractions:

Here’s how it would look like in the Student’s view. The ‘Drag Area’ elements would be randomized and the student will be required to place them back in the right order.

For the Target mode, you will need to configure a Target Area which is the section where students can drag their answers to. Follow this example below to see how to ensure the target area gets matched to the respective drag area.

Here’s how the example above would look like in the Student’s view. Remember to enable ‘Drag area can be used repetitively’ to allow the same area to be dragged again.

Tip #4: Turn your Maths Problems into Fun Mini-Games

Study Set Games allows you to automagically transform your study sets, i.e. terms and definitions or questions and answers into fun mini-games, with a click of a button. The list of games you can play are:

• Match
• Lines
• Choices
• Maze
• Memory
• Jigsaw
• Sequence
• Sort Me
• Crossword
• Flashcards
• Word Wheel
• Rockets
• Word Attack
• Word Search
• Draw n Guess
• Game Show
• Pairs

You can make several study set games on the same study set to create variety in your lesson, whilst allowing your students to repeat the learning in different and fun ways! This promotes mastery of understanding the key points of your lesson.

Additionally, you can input complicated Maths formula into the Study Set games using the dropdown option in the Study Set setting for TeX – Math Expressions. The documentation link is at the bottom box for your reference. 

Tip #6: Create Differentiated Learning Paths

Use the Forked template found in the Learning Paths and Activities Wizard to help pre-populate the differentiated paths.They can opt to take the ‘Easy’ path where all students should be able to pass through or the ‘Hard’ path where you throw in more challenges to keep the more gifted students suitably engaged.

To make it more challenging, create a Merged path. The key difference is the students need to complete BOTH paths before they can declare that they have completed the lesson.This is done adding an Activity Entry Lock at merged activity, requiring both neighboring activities to have been completed.

Read more here on how other Learning Paths and Activities template can be designed: https://blog.deck.toys/6-ways-to-design-a-deck/

Tip #7: Be inspired by other Pre-Made Decks in the Deck Gallery

You do not need to make all your lessons from scratch! Browse through the Deck Gallery to find thousands of pre-made decks, ranging from simple lessons to more elaborate escape rooms. Best of all – it’s free for all users! 

Use the filters on the left of the screen to narrow your search down. Here is an example filtered to Maths decks available in English for Grades 6-8.

Sharing is Caring

If you have made a deck that you would love to share with your fellow teachers but a little shy to upload to the public Deck Gallery, you can use the ‘Share with Link’ function. Read more here: https://help.deck.toys/article/60-how-do-i-share-my-deck

You could also join thousands of other teachers in our Facebook community to share lesson creation ideas for your students: https://www.facebook.com/groups/decktoys

Let us know if you have any ideas to make your language teaching amazing as well. Connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, TikTok and Instagram!

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Find out more about why Deck.Toys is all about Learning Paths for Lesson Adventures!Sign up for free here: https://deck.toys/getstarted