The order of operations is typically introduced in elementary or middle school math classes, usually around 4th or 5th grade. At this stage, students are expected to have a basic understanding of mathematical operations, such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.
In many schools, students are first introduced to the order of operations through simple problems that involve single operations such as addition, subtraction, and multiplication. They may be taught to perform the calculations in the order they appear in the problem, from left to right. As students progress to more complex problems that involve multiple operations, they are introduced to the formal order of operations rules, which dictate the order in which operations should be performed.
Learning the order of operations can be challenging for kids because it requires multiple steps and an understanding of abstract concepts.
Like any math unit, the abstract thinking is the biggest obstacle and the roots of confusion. Visualizing this math concept would be the best tool to take out the road block. Here is one way of using color to visualize the concept.
Ask students to the color the letters "BEDMAS" with the highlights at hand. They could color the letter B with blue, letter E with yellow and so on.
Ask the students to color the operations in the questions with the corresponding color in step one. In our case, the students will color the bracket with color blue and exponent with color yellow.
Now that everything is colored., the students can see the order of operations. The math problems is no longer abstract! Students just need to do the operations based on the color sequence in the word "BEDMAS". In our case, the student identifies that the first color is blue and they look for the operations with the color blue.
Kids have short attention spans, which makes them visual learners. Memorizing the order of operations by repetition can be achieved. However, it will brings unnecessary stress to the family study time as kids are likely to complain to the parents about how boring it is. Now, with help of color visualization, kids will feel less bored as the color stimulates the brain and makes the learning experience more fun. With a more relaxed learning mood, the brain is operating more efficiently and kids will remember the order of operation rule in no time.
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