2016 Challenge Bulletin Board

New semester means new changes in my classroom.  /Let's just say this change has some of my students excited and some of my students annoyed.  Excited about a new challenge.  Annoyed at the fact that the sticky note board is no more.

After a semester of students putting a sticky note (with their name on it) on the board each time they made a perfect score the first time on a quiz, I had a bulletin board with a BUNCH of sticky notes.

One good thing about having student aides?  I didn't have to take all of these down myself!!!

So, what's gone up in its place?

The 2016 Challenge.  Because, it's...you know...2016.  The goal is for students to create the numbers 1-100 using only the digits 2, 0, 1, and 6.  Students may add/subtract/multiply/divide, use parentheses, exponents, factorials, square roots, or whatever their little heart desires.

I first learned about the challenge from this tweet:

The 2016 Challenge is underway... pic.twitter.com/9KAklhsTqy

— Jeremy Denton (@Jeremy_Denton) January 5, 2016

A comment on that tweet led me to this blog post by Mr. Collins about the 2015 challenge.  

I, of course, had to type up my own version to fit on American sized paper.  My mom bought me a package of 11" x 17" card stock a while back that I have put to good use in my classroom.  I decided that printing the challenge on this larger paper would save my sanity when it came to hang it up.

Here's what the finished product ended up looking like:

Close-Up

Each number has a space to write the equation and a space for the student who found the solution to sign their name.

And, here are the instructions:

 
So, it's been one day.  And, I'm super impressed by the response I've gotten from my kiddos.  Let's just say I'm not used to seeing kids huddled around my bulletin boards with their calculators having heated discussions.  I could get used to this!

Here's the results thus far:

The first page has been almost all filled in.  The other pages still have a while to go.  But, that's a good thing.  I know the progress will be MUCH slower from now on.

If you have access to 11 x 17 paper, you might be interested in the file I made for this.  I've posted it here as an editable Publisher file and a PDF.  For the Publisher file, you'll need this free font: HVD Comic Serif Pro.