Monthly Archives: November 2010

Gaming, Simulations, and Virtual Worlds: Algebra vs. The Cockroaches

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After our meeting yesterday, Shannon Keenan was so kind to share the following educational game: http://hotmath.com/hotmath_help/games/kp/kp_hotmath_sound.swf.

Here are my thoughts:

  • I love the graphics and the interface of the game 
  • It is well scaffolded
  • Easy to play
  • Does it really matter how long it takes to complete the exercises?  I can do all of these in my sleep, but this doesn’t translate into being good at the game.  Success in the game is based on being quick at the skills
  • I felt anxious playing the game b/c it didn’t bring out my skill set.  Is this a good thing?  Did I become a better at the concept b/c of the added factor?  Not sure
  • Would it be good to have another layer on the game that includes beginner, moderate, and expert that allows for more time to complete the activity?
  • If I were incorporating this in a classroom, I would introduce the game after the concepts were taught in a traditional way.  But would it be better to start with this and work backwards to the concepts?  Not sure.
  • Students bring a game playing skill set that would make them better at playing games and that may help to pull them into the wanting to learn the skills
  • I don’t think the game would appeal to adult learners because it is so contrived.  How does this relate to the fireman game?  I think that we may need to think more about the audience that we are trying to reach for the game we are creating.
  • Another thing that I would incorporate in a class is reflection about the skills that should have been learned and assessment.  Any thoughts in adding this layer to the game?

Gaming, Simulations, and Virtual Worlds: Slope Game Concept

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Last week at our meeting we began to brainstorm some ideas about a game to teach slope.  Although we had many thoughts, here is the one that came out of the discussion:

Our game story is a fireman who is standing at a fixed height who is planning to save individuals from a burning building.  The scene includes individuals to be saved at different levels of the building.  On top of the scene, a grid is overlaid.  The spot where the fireman stands is represented by a point and the spots where each person to rescued is marked.  The player needs to find the equations of the lines in order to place the ladder to save all of the people before the building burns down.

Gaming, Simulations, and Virtual Worlds: Finding Slope (m)

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I’m really excited about how the Gaming, Simulations, and Virtual Worlds group.  We have moved from discussing games to creating them.  One idea that we are currently pursuing is about slope. 

To start the process, here are a few tutorials on slope:

Finding slope using a Graph (rise over run)

Finding Slope given only the coordinates of 2 points (no graph)

Finding the slope-intercept form of a line given a graph with 2 points marked on the graph.

These are the basic, foundational algebra concepts necessary to create the game.