A Gaming Adventure in Multiplication Is a game that will be helpful by allowing students to practice their math facts. The EAST student who made the game did so because he found other math games to be boring. He used Scratch to design his game. He use YouTube tutorials to help him in the beginning with learning how to write the coding needed. He had spent one year making this game. He had to write the codes for the math application of the game and coding for the bad guys to come out of the sides. When you eliminate them, you get a point. The question system works by giving you +10 points for the correct answers, but if you get it wrong, it is -10 points.
Summary — For this project, the student worked with our Math Specialist, Mrs. Huddleston and the 3rd Grade teachers. He wanted to have a way to enhance their unit on multiplication and also have it be something helpful for 4-6 students to use to review and improve their speed of answering their multiplication facts.
It started with trying to find an app to create the game. The students had used unity, but often found it more difficult. They also found that most gaming programs were not really appropriate for school use. They used guns to shoot other people or characters in the game. This game uses a pencil or eraser character to send out “bullets” that look like pencils to burst what looks similar to basketballs that enter the screen. It makes it much more school appropriate. Multiplication facts appear on the gaming screen as you play. You have to type in your answer and continue to pop the balls in order to continue the game.
CART -
Critical Thinking: We have wanted a project that would combine the skill of game design with academic standards and would also be school appropriate. Multiplication is an academic area that many students need repetition and practice to learn.
Advance: We have students who are great at writing code. We knew how to create using Scratch for videos, and many other projects and knew it could be used to create an interactive game. After hours and literally months and more, we have an interactive game that is fun to play and reinforces the learning of the multiplication facts.
Real: We collaborated with our Math Facilitator, our EAST Facilitator, and students from our EAST program and used Scratch to create our game.
Teamwork: This project required patience, great coding skills, dedication, and the ability to collaborate with other students to design, write code, create a game, and test it with other students to make sure it was engaging and had educational benefits.
Our Community Partner was Mrs. Erin Huddleston who is the Math Interventionist for our building. She works with all of our math teachers on curriculum, collaboration, resources, and anything the staff might need. She is an awesome resource for information on what the classroom teachers or students have expressed a desire for assistance with in the curriculum, practice, or reteaching.