Gaming in the maths classroom

On Saturday, I presented at the Education Show in Birmingham on gaming in the maths classroom and thought I would share some of my ideas with you.






















Above: Some photos of me before the show. The photo on the right-hand side was taken before the presentation (note the nervous smile!)


As teachers, we need to be convinced of the positive impact something would have before adopting it as part of our educational practice. Initially, we I started out with this project and research I was unsure of (1) why gaming works and (2) how to make it meaningful so it is not just perceived as a reward. However, now I am convinced that gaming is the way forward for mathematics education (within given parameters of course), but gaming is definitely changing students' mindsets and engagement in mathematics.

How the brain works:
If we start with what we know about the brain (at least at this moment in time), stressors for teenagers include many factors and one of those is repeated failure. When students are confronted with these stressors, the amygdala (also known as the switching station) is not allowing information through to the prefrontal cortex. In most mammals we see this as the 3F's - fight, flight and freeze. However, in a teenager in a maths classroom we see it manifest in one of two ways:
1) Acting out
2) Zoning out

It is essential that information arrives at the prefrontal cortex, as it is the prefrontal cortex that allows for critical thinking, reasoning and application of what we are learning in mathematics. However, for the majority of students, mathematics is associated with repeated failure and as a result, the amygdala is not allowing information to the pre-frontal cortex where the need to process and apply the information.

Above: Image of the brain from MyBrainNotes.com edited by Sarah-Neena Koch

This is where the games come in:
If you have ever observed someone playing a video game, you will have noticed that repeated failure doesn't seem to deter them from playing - and you would be correct. When playing games, the amygdala doesn't associated repeated failure with the switching that in other mammals is so important for the preservation of the species, in continues to allow information through to be processed by the prefrontal cortex.

Gaming in my classroom:
It is important to understand the differences between gamification and game based learning. This video I created will explain more:

Gamification:
If you are new to gaming, gamification is the best way to start off. Get comfortable with the various ways you can game in the classroom. I would suggest Kahoot, as teachers you can get it at: getkahoot.com and students access the games you've created at kahoot.it.  You can use kahoot to create polls of just using the online gaming tool. I also use kahoot for formative assessment or as a lesson starter.

Above: Engaging the audience at the show with a kahoot we played together.

I have also used Lego to gamify what students are learning/doing in mathematics.

Game based learning:
There are several games that I have used for game based learning in my classroom, using dragonbox and MineCraft This video will explain more:

I hope you have found this useful. Please get in touch if you are using games in your math classroom so that we can create a community where we share ideas and resources.

Investigating quadrilaterals

Following on for the investigation into triangles last week with my grade 6 MYP class, I had students inquire into the interior angles of quadrilaterals today. They firstly had them identify the different types of quadrilateral and find a ways of organising and identifying when you have what type of quadrilateral.

Afterwards, they had different types of quadrilaterals and cut out the angles from these quadrilateral add them, by means of glueing it to find the rule: interior angles of quadrilaterals add up to 360 degrees.

The verdict: Another fun and easy way for students to investigate the angle rules in quadrilateral. I had them complete a traditional determining angles exercise afterwards and they found it really easy to determine based on previous knowledge. Recommended! 

Using google docs for collaborative learning in mathematics

During today's lesson with my Grade 6 class, we were looking at finding factors and multiples of specific numbers. As we were looking at finding factors, one of my students posed the question: Would an even number always have an equal number of factors? Equally: Would an odd number have an odd amount of factors?

What a brilliant question and exactly the example of how we would like MYP students to inquire into mathematics. My response was - Great!!! Let's look at what you are asking as a class together. 

We quickly made a google doc and started looking at factors. Here is an image of the work in progress:

After finding the first eighteen factors, we looked to see if it holds true, and we highlighted the outliers (as seen below). Factors of 4 was the first exception (highlighted in orange) and we suggested that maybe it is the exception to the rule. We looked further at the factors, and found that it was true for all the other factors, except for 15 and 16 as seen below: 

Thus, as a class today, through a great inquiry a student posed, we learned so much - it was a quick visual for me to see who understood the concept of factors (as they were doing it live on my screen); students inquired into a fellow classmate's question and students discussed prime factors (having only 1 and the number itself as factors) and it was a wonderful collaborative learning opportunity where we could investigate and find that there was not a pattern holding true for all factors. 

My students reminded me again today that they have so much creativity and if I give them the opportunity to inquire and explore, they develop as confident mathematicians!