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How I Introduce Conditional Statements

Teaching conditional statements is one of my favorite things. In fact, the entire second unit I teach (logic and proofs) is probably my favorite unit. I love how it stretches students' minds and gets them to think more critically. Since we don't have an honors geometry, it easily levels the playing field for my mixed-abilities geometry classes.

One of my students' favorite days in geometry is the first day of our logic and proofs unit. Like most geometry curricula, ours starts with conditional statements. To introduce students to the concept and get them motivated, I teach them to play Minesweeper.

Image result for minesweeper meme

Growing up, I had no idea how to play this logical, amazingly addictive game. And then I began teaching high school! Most of the geometry teachers in my school introduce logical reasoning with Sudoku, but since I've been Sudoku-ed out since I was 11, I decided to teach them Minesweeper. 

I start by showing off my mad Minesweeper skills by beating a small grid in less than a minute. With their jaws on the floor, they ask, "How did you do that?!" I then explain - with gusto - the following details:
  1. Minesweeper is just a bunch of 3x3 grids
  2. If there is a number in the middle of the 3x3 grid, then there is that number of "mines" around it in the grid.
  3. If a number is already "satisfied" (or rather, the mine(s) surrounding it has already been identified), then you can safely open the rest of the boxes around it.
--> Do you see those sneaky conditional statements? <--

I then challenge them to win a game before the class ends. Sometimes I have students get as far as they can on a few paper/pencil games before using their Chromebooks. This year I omitted the paper version, but I attached it below in case anyone wants to use it.


Best,
-Rosanne

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