Fun with Math Dice + Khan Academy
Last week in class we split up into our groups to play games. Most of the games had some sort of educational component to it, and our group played a game called Math Dice. The premise of the game is simple:
1) To start, one player rolls the two 12- sided dice. A “Target Number” is then established as the result of multiplying these two numbers together.
2) After the Target Number has been established, the other player rolls the three 6-sided “Scoring” dice. Using each of the numbers on the dice once and only once, and combining them using any combination of addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and/or powers, players attempt to calculate a result that comes as close as possible to the target. In the case of powers, your must use one or more of the scoring numbers to get your exponent.
3) Once a player has calculated a number, she calls it out. The other player then tries to find a closer number. Players go back and forth until one player either hits the target exactly or the other player cannot find a closer number.
4) The player who calculates the closest number wins the point. The winning result may be above the Target Number, below the Target Number, or may hit it exactly.
The biggest takeaway was that although the game was good at getting players to practice their skills it wasn’t as great at teaching the component skills necessary to play the game. In fact, it could demotivate learning if people are missing key skills or prior knowledge. It was interesting to see that our group was one of the first groups to stop playing our game. It could have been because the amount of concentration necessary to play the game was higher than other games or simply that most of us had no interest in math.
Khan Academy
After we had fun playing with physical games, our group shifted over to looking at games and learning experiences online. We looked at Khan Academy as a learning tool. Below we describe our thoughts on the experience.
