Trig Rummy

My calc students have really been struggling with trig substitution, mostly, i think, due to lack of fluency with trigonometric functions. I'm a big believer in games for skill practice, as they are an engaging context that encourages more practice and ideally offer a chance for forging new connections.

So today we played Trig Rummy. Many of my card games are based on concentration, rummy, or go fish. And occasionally Euchre. (I still think the partially ordered quadrilateral Euchre has a future.) Links for printables are after the rules. I think it would adapt to high school trig pretty easily. I'd replace the calculus relations with graphs and triangle identifications.

Trig Rummy

Objective: the player will practice and gain facility with trigonometric identities and calculus relations.

Players: 2-4

Goal: get the most cards in play.

Set up: randomize cards and deal 7 cards to each player. (You may want to introduce the game with only 4 cards as 7 is overwhelming.)

Play: On your turn you may do one of:
• take any card from the discard pile (not just the top card).
• draw a new card.
After that you may do either or both of:
• pick up any sets you have.
• play any new sets you have.
At the end of your turn, if you did not play a set, discard a card.

Special:
• if at any point the discard pile contains a complete set, the first player to otice can cal “Rummy!” and take the set out to play for themselves.
• you can not play matching operator cards, like a pair of d/dx cards.
• There is a wild card, which you can choose to be -1× (times -1), or d/dx, or ∫ ⋅ dx.

End: After the last card is drawn from the deck, each player gets one more turn from the discard pile. Then the cards are counted up and the player with the most cards played wins. No penalty for unplayed cards.

Variation: Play until one player is out.

Example plays:
• Play sin2(x) matching 1 − cos2(x).
• Play d/dx with sin(x) matching cos(x).
• Play ∫ ⋅ dx with sec(x)tan(x) matching d/dx with ln|sec(x) +tan(x)| (since both are equal to sec(x).)

If a player lays a mistaken combination and no one catches it before the next player’s turn, they stay in play but turned face down. If someone does catch it, that player has to pick up the pair.

Feel free to use a trig cheat sheet.

Rules PDF - includes a trig cheat sheet
Trig Cards PDF - for 54 2-sided cards of trig identities and calc relations. Could use for flash cards or other games also.