As Super Bowl XLV nears, this festive board designed by Kutztown University's Jeff Kerchner would make a great addition to any classroom. While his display targets seventh and eighth grade math students, you could certainly tweak it a bit to make it appeal to different age groups, subjects, and units!

Solving Equations: Interactive Exercise

Kerchner first printed and laminated the logo of each NFC (National Football Conference) and AFC (American Football Conference) football team in the playoffs (six teams in each of the conferences) as well as a "play book" for each. [NOTE: Kerchner created this in 2006 so the teams included in your interactive display will be different than his!] Each team's play book, whether offensive or defensive, was composed of six different equations.

Rules of Play:

1. Chose one NFC team and one AFC team to compete in the Super Bowl. Begin by placing each team's football at the top of the board and inserting each team's play book into the display's viewing windows.
2. Lift the viewing window flaps to reveal four "plays" for each team.
3. Solve the equations in each "play", showing all work.
4. Add up the results of all four "plays" to see which team is the winner.

Of course, remember, the game to be played is only limited by your imagination!

Super Bowl Interactive Display

While decoration and color scheme is largely up to you and your tastes, here's what Kerchner chose (I'm assuming he's a Philadelphia Eagles fan!):

• Background: Cover the left half of the board with teal bulletin board paper (top to bottom) and the right half with white background paper.
• Title: "Solving Equations Super Bowl" and labels for both offense and defense.
• Border: Kerchner used a plain white bulletin board trimmer, but you might also consider a football-themed border as well.
• Decoration: 1) The Conference & Team Footballs. Visit NFL.com to download copies of the logos for each conference as well as each team in the playoffs, printing them onto card stock. Attach each conference logo to a card stock football and attach to the board. Cut and laminate the individual team logos, separate them into conferences, and create a labeled envelope to store each set. Attach the envelopes at the bottom of the board. 2) The Viewing Windows. See Kerchner's full post under "Special Construction". Attach a viewing window to each side of the board and place a football cutout above each one. 3) Playbooks. Use word processing software - adding a heading (i.e. "Philadelphia Eagles Offensive Playbook"), the team's logo, and six equations or "plays". Be sure to keep the margins, font sizes, and other document settings the same so that each playbook will fit the viewer window. Print, separate by teams by conference, and place in labeled envelopes. Attach the envelopes at the bottom of the board. 4) The Details. Add some festive star cutouts around the title, etc. to complete the board! And don't forget to add an envelope, etc. for student submissions!

With the teal, white, and black color scheme, it looks like Kerchner was an Eagles fan, but as mentioned before, you can certainly change the design and game to meet the needs of your classroom! Overall, we think this is a great bulletin board display idea - it takes into account current events and provides an interactive activity to further your students' learning!