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Your students are about to visit the Math Shop Jr. T Mall. But this is no ordinary shopping mall! Here customers browse for yo-yos and shop for gizmos. Your students will fill shoppers' orders by using a variety of basic math skills. Serving customers in the 10 Math Shop Jr. stores will be a fun and ever-changing challenge for your students. Each shop requires a different set of skills, and each customer wants something slightly different. Whether students are counting coins at the Bank or subtracting spiders in the Spider Shop, they will be putting their math skills to work. The longer they work in each store, the more complex the problems will become. Each of the stores provides an interactive environment where students can explore all facets of a given problem. Each problem comes alive with graphics, moving numbers, and values that are calculated in response to students' entries. Because of its interactive features, Math Shop Jr. can be a wonderful discovery tool for many students. In each shop, students are given an invitation to "mess around" with the numbers, trying many possible solutions. The computer automatically does some of the time-consuming calculations, leaving students free to concentrate on analyzing the problem itself. Looking at all of the numbers involved, students can think about how, why, and where a given answer doesn't work, try a different solution, and immediately see the results of the new answer. In the process, they will be performing mental calculations and practicing important estimating skills. You will find Math Shop Jr. to be a useful program for all your students. It can serve as a motivator for students not yet interested in math or an enticing challenge for students who like to test and improve their problem-solving strategies. |
