Mental Math Video... a different twist.

The video below is a video I have actually used for a mental math activity. Students watched the video as I wrote questions on the board. "How many dominoes do you think were used? How long did it take from first domino placed to finished video? Do you think they got frustrated and why? Was it all completed at once or in small steps?" My grade 11s and 12s enjoyed it but I got the sense that they thought I was crazy because that is not how mental math has always been done for them. My grade 9s and 10s on the other hand loved it! But how is this mental math?
Well I have changed my outlook on mental math from you have one minute to complete these ten questions on the board. I now will still do the ten questions but I also use more videos and abstract problems like this video. With this activity students get a visual problem to work on. They use estimation skills and communication skills when discussing the questions in groups. Also their answers for the last two questions are "yes the person gets frustrated because they might knock it down" and "they are completed in small separate steps and then video edited to make it look like one big one". Now I leave you with these two questions that I get the class to discuss after, "Does math frustrate people and why?" and "How should math problems be completed, all at once or in small steps that are put together to get the answer?"

The other video below is what I use for a "gear turner" in my physics classes. Gear turners are like mental math but more science based. After watching this video in class I asked the groups "How did he do it?" A bonus is that he is from Winnipeg, MB so he is also local :).

Also I was going to put a couple other videos up but I found that my other math teacher friend used both of them as well. Instead of posting them myself I added the link to Cecile's derivatives below
http://cecilecorriveau.blogspot.ca/2015/01/online-videos-tech-task-9.html?showComment=1425326358461#c5814814755016561839