Language Skills Using SET in the Classroom

For this exercise, transparencies can be placed on the overhead projector or printed on a worksheet for students to work individually or in teams.

Activity: Place two cards on the overhead projector. Ask the students to describe the missing card. For younger students, have them fill in missing adjectives in a sentence you provide.

More Advanced Activity: Place two cards on the overhead projector. Ask the students to draw the missing card and then write a sentence describing it.
Example: I need two open purple ovals to complete this SET.
Place two new cards on the overhead projector. Ask the students to draw the missing card and then write a sentence using a different verb or sentence structure. Example: In order to complete this SET, a solid red oval is required.
Continue as above: The third sentence could be: “Please give me an open red diamond.”

Developing Mathematical Reasoning using Attribute Games

By Anne Larson Quinn, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Edinboro University, Quinna@edinboro.edu
Frederick Weening, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Edinboro University, Fweening@edinboro.edu
Robert M. Koca, Jr., Ph.D.

Reproduced with permission from the Mathematics Teacher, copyright 1999 by the NCTM.

The game of SET^® has proven to be a very popular game at our college mathematics club meetings. Since we've started playing, the membership has grown every month. In fact, one of our members brought her six year old son to a meeting, and he now looks forward to playing SET^® with us every month. As a result of playing the game in our club and thinking about the results, we created and solved a variety of mathematical questions. For example, we wondered about possible strategies for winning and conjectured about phenomena that happened when playing. These questions involve a wide variety of traditional mathematical topics, such as the multiplication principle, combinations and permutations, divisibility, modular arithmetic, and mathematical proof.

MATHEMATICAL FUN & CHALLENGES IN THE GAME OF SET^®

By Phyllis Chinn, Ph.D. Professor of Mathematics
Dale Oliver, Ph.D. Professor of Mathematics
Department of Mathematics
Humboldt State University
Arcata, CA 95521

The Game of SET

End Game SET

Object
To determine the attributes of the missing card.

The Play
At the beginning of the game, remove one card from the deck and place it face down to the side. 

Now play the game according to the standard rules of SET.  When no more SETs can be found, you can determine the attributes of the missing card.

Download Printable Instructions Here