Weekly Math Poll – Star Wars Day

This poll highlights some features of designing quality tasks that we point out in this post. But, don’t worry, there are no spoilers here.

Task #1
The first task is a tap an image question about which character has been in the most Star Wars Films. If you are making a tap an image task like this, you need to be careful not to select the border for the answers. The answer is not Jar Jar Binks (thank goodness) but if it were, this is how you would select the acceptable region to not have overlap.

Which character has been in the most Star Wars Films?

– Tap an Image: Example of highlighting the correct answer –

If you shaded all the way to the edges, a student could select between Mace Windu and Jar Jar Binks and still get the question right. The way it is shaded above, students need to pick one face, not a border between them.

Task #2
Task 2 asks what AT-AT stands for. Again, the answer is NOT “a terrifying attack tank” but if it were, here is what that answer would look like:

Allow typos in student responses

– Allowing typos in student responses –

Notice how we allow 3 typos. In English class, spelling matters but for trivia we just want to know if they are close. Maybe your student spells terrifying with one ‘r’ and attack with one ‘t’. They would still get the answer correct… except the actually answer is not “A Terrifying Attack Tank”, it’s something a little less silly. Also, we have equivalence set to match words but not case so it is not sensitive to capitalization.

Task #4
Task 4 is a particularly fun one! This task actually has two correct answers, for multiple choice tasks you can select multiple correct answers. This is a great way to stimulate rich discussions with your students. If you run this poll with your class, we recommend you learn it first since this is a fun one to know ahead of time. Here’s a hint: one of the correct answers was the title of an early pre-production script.

Multiple choice with multiple correct answers

– Task 4: Multiple choice (with multiple correct answers) –

Task #5
Task 5 doesn’t need a picture but we find that pictures makes tasks more fun. Instead of having a simple multiple choice question you can liven it up with a fun picture like this.

Multiple choice with supporting image

– Task 5: Multiple choice with supporting image –

Task #8
For task 8 we use the equivalence setting to set a tolerance. For this problem it accepts answers that are within 31 from what we put as the correct answer. 

Setting a tolerance for student responses

– Setting a tolerance for student responses –

This is helpful for questions where you are not concerned about precision. If you don’t want to specify rounding conventions or you want an estimate, this tool can be quite helpful.

Task #9
For task 9 we used a picture as a hint. Even if you haven’t seen the specific episode, there is a chance you might recognize the lead character from the picture. Using pictures as hints can be helpful supports for problems that are a little bit of a stretch. They can also be helpful for language supports for your emerging bilingual students.

We hope you enjoy the trivia as much as we do. Good luck and may the fourth be with you!

Get started by previewing the poll right now, or login to wootmath.com and search for Star Wars Trivia Poll in the Shared Gallery.

Stay tuned for next week’s poll!