1. Combinations at the Elementary/Secondary Level By Africa Dunn

2. A combination is selection of things in which the order does not matter

3. Key Concepts When solving a Combination problem, you may sometimes get it mixed up with Permutation. One way to combat this issue, is to look for key term such as 1. Selection 2. Teams 3. Subjects 4. Choice 5. Clothes 6. Mainly, ORDER DOES NOT MATTER

4. How to solve combination problems on an Elementary level Give students a real life scenario, for example Africa is going on vacation and would like to find out how many outfits she make from her wardrobe. She has 4 solid color shirts which are: yellow, orange, blue, or red, and 4 solid color shorts that are brown, black, green, or purple. How many different outfits can Africa make? No two outfits can be the same, she’s a fashionista!

5. Answer should look similar to this

6. How to solve combinations on a Secondary Level Give students real world problems as well. However at this level the students are ready for formulas to aid in solving. The formula for Combinations is The “n” represents the number of things to choose and you choose “r” of them.

7. Examples of solving Combinations with formula ex: 16C3 16! = 16*15*14*13*12*11*10*9*8*7*6*5*4*3*2*1 16!/ (16-3)! 3! = 16!/ (13)! 3! = 560 Easier way to solve 16! Can be reduces by 13! Which leaves us with 16*15*14*/3*2*1 = 3360/6= 560