"Around the Clock!" Partner Scavenger Hunt Activities in Math Class

Partner scavenger hunt math activities get math students working together as they solve problems. Each student in a pair gets a unique set of problems to solve. The problems are different but the correct answers are the same! Students have incentive to work together until their answers match. Teachers re loving these activities for math review, stations, centers, partner work and even when their classes have a sub. You can check out all the middle and high school math partner scavenger hunts we have made so far in this post.

One year I had a senior whose boyfriend also went to our school. Even though they were together, they never actually spoke face-to-face. They only ever communicated over the internet. This got me thinking about how important it is to build in time for students to talk with each other. 


Partner scavenger hunt math activities get math students working together as they solve problems. Each student in a pair gets a unique set of problems to solve. The problems are different but the correct answers are the same! Students have incentive to work together until their answers match. Teachers re loving these activities for math review, stations, centers, partner work and even when their classes have a sub. You can check out all the middle and high school math partner scavenger hunts we have made so far in this post.

My friend Kara from Learning Made Radical and I have been collaborating to create a math activity that includes this communication. These new "Around the Clock" partner scavenger hunts encourage collaboration, give kids that instant feedback they love and cut back on grading (yeah!). 

One Step Equations Around the Clock Partner Scavenger Hunt Activity


So how do these partner scavenger hunts work?


Here is a quick video about how Partner Scavenger Hunt Activities work:


1: Each student in a pair gets his or her own clock and clock cutouts. The problems for each of the 2 clocks are different, but the answers are the same. 

One Step Equations Around the Clock Partner Scavenger Hunt Activity

2: Here the clocks are printed on different colored paper. The fonts on each clock and cutouts are different, allowing you to print everything on white if you don't have colored paper. The different fonts allow students to keep track of their own pieces.

One Step Equations Around the Clock Partner Scavenger Hunt Activity

3: Students place their START slip at the 12 o'clock position and solve their own START problem. The answer they find will be on the top of the next slip, which gets placed at 1 o'clock.

One Step Equations Around the Clock Partner Scavenger Hunt Activity

4: Students can help each other if they get stuck and will know their work is correct if their answers match each other. 

Here you can see both students found answers 21-1-9 for the first 3 problems (but the problems leading to those answers were different).


5: Students know that their work is correct if the answer on the top of the slip at 12 o'clock matches the problem on the slip placed at 11 o'clock. 

Simplifying Rational Expressions Partner Scavenger Hunt Activity

Here are the 2 student answer sheets for a simplifying rational expressions partner scavenger hunt. The original expressions were different but the simplified versions match each other.




Order of Operations Around the Clock Partner Scavenger Hunt Activity

Kara made this Around the Clock activity for order of operations. It works the same way and covers CCSS 6.EE.A2.

Equations Partner Scavenger Hunt Bundle

Here is one for solving equations.

Quadratic Formula partner scavenger hunt activity

One for the Quadratic Formula.

Adding and Subtracting Integers partner scavenger hunt activity with partner 1's answer sheet

And clock 1 with its answer sheet for adding and subtracting integers.


We are super excited to bring you more of these activities! We're adding more all the time and hope to eventually cover most middle school and Algebra topics.


UPDATE 1: Since originally writing this post, I have updated all of my partner scavenger hunts to also include digital drag-and-drop versions in Google Slides. 


UPDATE 2: Partner scavenger hunts can also be given to individual students to complete. To use it this way, give each student one of the clocks. The activity is still self-checking. 





Scaffolded Math and Science blog

8 comments:

  1. I would love to have the multi step equations include the distributive property, combine like terms, and 0,1, or infinite solutions. =)

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    1. Thank you so much for your suggestion, Carey, and I apologize for taking so long to reply. This is a great idea. I have a math pennant for multi-step equations that involve distribution, but this would be a great topic for a partner scavenger hunt. -Shana

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  2. I teach algebraic reasoning and I am interested in hands on activities for this class rather than the worksheets I've been recommended to use. The make up of this class requires engaging activities!!!! So thank you thank you thank you for sharing your creative brain with the world.

    What do you have for these Upcoming topics: identifying function types using common differences and common ratios (linear, quad, cubic, or exponential); regression (linear, quad, exp); scatterplots; absolute value

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    1. Thank you for your kind words! I love hands on activities so am happy to know the activities here have been helpful for your kiddos. Kara and I are looking for more partner scavenger hunt activity ideas, so I will chat with her about your ideas. Thank you! More to come soon! :)

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  3. I love these and would love to try these with my highschool special education math class. I'm having problems finding where I can print them out. Can you show me where the link is?

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    1. Thank you for asking this. There is a section in my tpt store for the partner scavenger hunts that I have made. You can see these and the ones that Kara has made in this post: https://www.scaffoldedmath.com/p/partner-scavenger-hunt-activities.html

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  4. Hi there. This is a great activity! Thanks so much for sharing all your ideas and resources. It really adds another dimension to lessons. One thing I'm not sure of though - how does a scavenger hunt come into it? Cheers.

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    1. Thanks for asking this! After solving a problem, each student "hunts" for the answer they found on the top of another slip. On this next slip is the next problem to solve. Students continue like this until all slip are placed. If the problem on the 11 o'clock slip matches the answer at the top of the 12 o'clock slip, more likely than not all answers are correct.

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