Weekly Work
Exploring “Games and Math”
I wanted to try to dedicate my weekly work to playing math games this week. I thought that it would be a good idea to do this because I haven’t really explored the possibility of learning math through game play. I think that math games can be a very reliable and effective way for students to learn math.
I wanted to try different levels of learning by increasing the difficulty of the game play.
The first game that I played is called “shape shooting triangles” I think that this math game would be a really good game to introduce to students as they are just getting comfortable learning different types of triangles. The objective of the game is to identify different types of triangles as quickly and accurately as you can within the time allotted. There are all different types of triangles as well as angle measures. I think that once your students got really good at identifying the different types of angles and types of triangles, they would eventually outgrow this game but it would be a really good one to introduce the objective of understanding and identifying triangles and their angle measures.
http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/mathgames/geometry/shapeshoot/triangles_shoot.htm
The next game that I tried was called “Baseball Geometry.” When I first played this game I thought that it was going to be a really good one because not only was it incorporating sports into the game but it also seemed as though the math was going to be very detailed. I played this game for about 15 minutes and couldn’t quite figure out how to really play it and do well. This game focused mainly on naming triangle sides, such as an ABC triangle. I think that this game might be alright for students that are experienced in playing computer games but I believe that if you tried to do this with the whole class it would not go well because there are so many aspects you have to pay attention to and it could get confusing as well as overwhelming to students.
http://www.factmonster.com/math/knowledgebox/player.html?movie=sfw41554
I think that this game was really fun! This game is fast paced and challenging. The goal of this game is to hurry and grad as many triangles as you can and out them into their correct classification basket. There are A LOT of triangles and you have to go fast but make sure that you are correct, or the score starts completely over. I like this game a lot, its challenging but not because there are so many rules and aspects to the game, the speed aspect of the game is what makes it challenging, also this particular game would encourage competition within the student. The student is always going to try to beat the last score achieved. I think that this game would be a great game for studnets to play for a few minutes to brush up on types of triangles once they already know them. I do not think that this game would be very good to introduce types of triangles just because the speed of the game might overwhelm the students. Overall I think that this was my favorite game!
http://www.math-play.com/classifying-triangles/classifying-triangles.html
Considering that I have not played many if any math games at all, not even in high school or elementary school, I was hesitant to accept the idea of “math games.” I originally thought that a math game would either be really boring or really confusing and I may be able to come up with a better math game that my students would love. After actually giving some of these games a chance I realize that they really can be an effective way of learning. Some of them were actually fun and challenging!
Reading Schedule
Introduction and Chapter 1 Sep. 29
Chapter 2 Oct. 6
Chapter 3 Oct. 13
Chapter 4 Oct. 20
Chapter 5 Oct. 27
Chapter 6 Nov. 3
Chapter 7 Nov. 10
Chapter 8 Nov. 17
Chapter 9 Nov. 22
Exploring “Games and Math”
I wanted to try to dedicate my weekly work to playing math games this week. I thought that it would be a good idea to do this because I haven’t really explored the possibility of learning math through game play. I think that math games can be a very reliable and effective way for students to learn math.
I wanted to try different levels of learning by increasing the difficulty of the game play.
The first game that I played is called “shape shooting triangles” I think that this math game would be a really good game to introduce to students as they are just getting comfortable learning different types of triangles. The objective of the game is to identify different types of triangles as quickly and accurately as you can within the time allotted. There are all different types of triangles as well as angle measures. I think that once your students got really good at identifying the different types of angles and types of triangles, they would eventually outgrow this game but it would be a really good one to introduce the objective of understanding and identifying triangles and their angle measures.
http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/mathgames/geometry/shapeshoot/triangles_shoot.htm
The next game that I tried was called “Baseball Geometry.” When I first played this game I thought that it was going to be a really good one because not only was it incorporating sports into the game but it also seemed as though the math was going to be very detailed. I played this game for about 15 minutes and couldn’t quite figure out how to really play it and do well. This game focused mainly on naming triangle sides, such as an ABC triangle. I think that this game might be alright for students that are experienced in playing computer games but I believe that if you tried to do this with the whole class it would not go well because there are so many aspects you have to pay attention to and it could get confusing as well as overwhelming to students.
http://www.factmonster.com/math/knowledgebox/player.html?movie=sfw41554
I think that this game was really fun! This game is fast paced and challenging. The goal of this game is to hurry and grad as many triangles as you can and out them into their correct classification basket. There are A LOT of triangles and you have to go fast but make sure that you are correct, or the score starts completely over. I like this game a lot, its challenging but not because there are so many rules and aspects to the game, the speed aspect of the game is what makes it challenging, also this particular game would encourage competition within the student. The student is always going to try to beat the last score achieved. I think that this game would be a great game for studnets to play for a few minutes to brush up on types of triangles once they already know them. I do not think that this game would be very good to introduce types of triangles just because the speed of the game might overwhelm the students. Overall I think that this was my favorite game!
http://www.math-play.com/classifying-triangles/classifying-triangles.html
Considering that I have not played many if any math games at all, not even in high school or elementary school, I was hesitant to accept the idea of “math games.” I originally thought that a math game would either be really boring or really confusing and I may be able to come up with a better math game that my students would love. After actually giving some of these games a chance I realize that they really can be an effective way of learning. Some of them were actually fun and challenging!
Reading Schedule
Introduction and Chapter 1 Sep. 29
Chapter 2 Oct. 6
Chapter 3 Oct. 13
Chapter 4 Oct. 20
Chapter 5 Oct. 27
Chapter 6 Nov. 3
Chapter 7 Nov. 10
Chapter 8 Nov. 17
Chapter 9 Nov. 22