ULearn18: Breakout Two - Evaluating games for learning and teaching mathematics and the Key Competencies with Nicola Petty

I am finding maths with Year 2s and 3s a whole new ball game this year.  Appropriate games to play with them that they can do independently and teach each other after I have taught them are a priority.  So I decided that Nicola Petty's Breakout may be what I need to zush up my approach to maths.

Nic, aka @RogoNic on Twitter (Twitter bio: "Dr Nic is a math activist, helping all teacher to teach stats and mathematics through videos, resources, and games.  Read how at Creative Maths) and I follow each other on Twitter, so it was great to finally meet in person.  And after dinner that night, we had a riveting discussion on maths with some other Twitter friends.

This is the Abstract for Nicola's Breakout:
Many maths principles and skills can be learned and practised using games. Tabletop games and large group games can develop the key competencies and 21st Century skills. However not all games are effective. Some teach within the mechanism of the game, while in others the content is separate.

In this session we will explore some of the different games available, including newer games such as Catan, Ticket to Ride and The Cat Pack, as well as traditional ones like Ludo, Snakes and Ladders, and draughts. We may also have time for some physical games that enhance mathematics learning.

After the introductions, we had an opportunity for discussion in small groups at our tables.  The topic was reasons for using games in maths.... and there were lots of good reasons.

Reasons for using games in maths:

• routines
• learning to win and lose well and how to make mistakes
• communication
• working memory
• building fluency
• applying concepts
• meaningful application of maths
• inquiry
• co-operation
• managing self
• thinking
• using language and symbols
• relating to others
• participating and contributing.
• assessment
• home-school engagement

Nic introduced the (new to me) concept of mechanism alignment: does the game help with the learning?  Is the maths endogenous or exogenous?  (Endogenous: the maths is integral, example: Memory.  Exogenous: the maths is an additional layer, example: you roll the dice, land on a question place, answer a question, get to move on.)  Is the game mechanism peripheral or distracting?  These were some of the things we would need to assess whether or not a game would be suitable for our students and the learning or maintenance purpose we wanted addressed.

This was the criteria we were using in Nic's workshop to evaluate maths games.

 The first game Nic introduced us to was the Snail Race Game, involving the skills of subitising and adding.

The idea is that everyone chooses a snail, from 1-12.  Using two dice, roll them.  Lets say the dice show:

So you add 1+6=7.  Then colour in a circle by snail #7.  Then the dice might roll:

So you add 4+2=6.  Then colour in a circle by snail #6.  Then the dice might roll:

So you add 1+1=2.  Then colour in a circle by snail #2.  Then the dice might roll:

So you add 5+2=7.  Then colour in a circle by snail #7.  So far you can see snail #7 is in the lead.  Which snail will make it to the end of the race first by having all its circles coloured in?  How long until the children figure out chosing snail #1 is a loser proposition because you can never roll a total of one with adding two dice together?

We then discussed playing Memory.  The purpose of the cards shown was addition fluency, for example 4+3 was on one card and 7 on another, so you have to turn the making addition and total over to get a pair.  But the mechanism is to remember placement and match equivilent cards, not on actually adding and processing..

Nic introduced the concept of "Learning (and Success) Share" - the person who gets it right, gets more practice than those who get it wrong (such as with Memory, because if you get a match you get another term) and elimination games (like cricket or 21).

We played a new game in developed by Creative Maths called Multy Facty.  It focuses on multiplication tables for 4x, 5x, 6x, 7x, 8x and 9x tables.

There are two sets of cards, multiples and factors.  Each player gets dealth six factor cards and their goal is to use all of their cards to win.  There are five multiple cards laid out.  Each player takes turns to lay up to three factor cards under one multiple card, for example, if you look at the multiple 16 in the image above from the Creative Maths website, beneath it you can see three factor cards which each have the number 4 on them.  Once four factor cards with 4 have been placed, that set of cards are removed from the game and a new multiple card is added.  There are also wild cards with four different numbers so you can choose how to place them.  To learn more, click here.  You can also learn about many other games from Creative Maths on this page too.

Below is a handout of games available for purchase via Nic's company Creative Maths and the prices are correct as of October 2018.  You can shop for these games here.

Nicola also has her own YouTube channel with over 45,000 subscribers.  You can check that out here.

Nicola said she and her business partner figured out something about games for maths: the games just need to be a bit more fun than doing a worksheet.  They have other games and are continuing to develop further games to make maths fun, so much fun you didn't even know you were learning.