🌲How Does Math Make Games More Complex, Interesting, and Re-playable?🌲

🌲Hello and welcome back to the forest of learning! In this post, I will guide you through the process of creating a card game based on exponent laws. I had the pleasure of working with an awesome human on this project; Erik was a great partner (Go check out his blog!). This project was very fun, and I enjoyed creating the game “Exponent Rodents”, as well as playing my classmate’s wonderful games at the end of the project. If you would like to see the process of creating our card game, please continue reading!🌲

⬇️As always, we followed the project path throughout the course of the project;⬇️

To start the project off, we created a mind map. The mindmap included information we already knew about exponents and games, as well as any questions we had about them. Previously, before this project, I had already been introduced to some very basic ideas of exponents over the summer. Although I had already known a little about the math concept already, I still had plenty to learn about exponents.

 

Throughout the entire project, we completed a “notes document” in notability. In this document, we completed many exponent questions as a class as well as individually to help build our knowledge. I especially enjoy documents like these, I find I learn well completing worksheets where I am able to reflect on my work and keep it all organized in one place. Throughout completing this document,  I believe I expressed an extending understanding of the competency “Reasoning and Analyzing”. In this notes document, I learned the knowledge of exponents that would be directly used in my game. I was able to include the important knowledge gained from this document of into my game, and without the previous knowledge of exponents, there would be no math concepts to even include in the game to begin with! Overall, I am proud of the work I completed in this document, and it represents my understanding of the crucial math concepts in this project well.

Through this worksheet, In addition to general knowledge of exponents, I also realized that the people who create them are probably starved for entertainment. While looking ahead, we found an interesting math question;

I think this is a bit morbid for a 9th grade math sheet, but, it did make me laugh!😂

Incase you were wondering, the height of the body after 2 seconds was 36.4 (Thanks to Nolan for solving the problem, a brilliant detective I might add!)

I found this project to be very similar to a project we have done in the past; Tectonic Chances. Similar to that project, we are creating a game! Erik and I spent a long time choosing our concept and idea for the game. We went through many brainstorms and ideas before choosing our general game concept. To start the ideas flowing, we brainstormed together and with other peers. We completed a class activity in which we created 3 games with varying pieces and conditions for each one. David, Erik and I all came up with short game ideas. I found this activity to be very helpful as I was able to engage and brainstorm game ideas in a limited time, which helped me later when thinking of ideas for my own game. 

In addition to the notes document, we also participated in two kahoot games in order to have an understanding of the class’s collective knowledge of exponents. These games were honestly very fun, and it is a class activity that gets me excited about the topics we are learning about. In addition to the kahoots, we also completed one quiz on Khan Academy as well as one written test in class. I definitely think I need to learn a lot more about exponents, as I am not completely happy with how my test scores reflected my learning. I personally believe I tried my best, and I understand that I just haven’t fully accomplished exponents yet. I hope to improve through expanding my knowledge on my own time as well as becoming more generally confident in my exponent skills!

Now, for the fun part, creating the game! Erik and I honestly struggled with our game ideas at first. We both had very different ideas while brainstorming, and it was difficult to find an idea we both mutually agreed on and enjoyed. However, we ended up coming with a concept we both loved. The overall idea was to create a game with answer cards and question cards, you have multiple choices as to what the correct answer could be, and you would figure out the answer to the question before other players. We toyed around with many ideas, but I won’t bore you with the concepts we didn’t end up going with.

⬇️Instead, take a look at the many drafts and ideas we came up with throughout the evolution of our game rules!⬇️

Here is our first try at brainstorming:

I believe that throughout the project, I displayed an extending understanding of the curricular competency; “Applying and Innovating”. I believe this because throughout the entire project, I communicated and collaborated well with my partner. I stayed on task and focused in order to produce a well-made final game result. Erik and I both collaborated throughout the entire game which I really appreciated. We divided the jobs equally and fairly, even when I was sick and unable to be there in-person for a portion of the project, Erik and I were able to compete our tasks efficiently. I am very proud of my work, and I believe we both contributed an equal amount of quality work that produced a lovely game result!

One main job Erik had was to create the cards! I came up with the layout, and he created each card’s front side. I was responsible for creating the card backs, and filling out the equations on each card. I also was responsible for the editing the game rules. Erik helped with the aesthetics and was even able to laminate each card which added a layer of overall professionalism to our final game.

⬇️Here is the evolution of our game cards! From the first draft, to the final design⬇️


Side note: many people asked me why we named our game “exponent rodents” well, it unfortunately was not very creative. Erik and I thought of rhyming words with exponent or exponents, and rodent and exponent do in fact rhyme. We though “exponent moments” would also be a nice theme, but we thought a rodent themed game would be unique and interesting!

While creating the game rules, I believe I expressed an extended understanding of the curricular competency; “Communicating and Representing”. I believe this because I was able to represent the mathematical concepts we learned in class all while creating a game that was fun and met the project criteria. I believe the game rules are well made and easy to follow. I am able to communicate the ideas of the game through this document, and I am very proud of myself for the work I have done.

⬇️here was our first draft of game rules!⬇️

⬇️If you would like to see our final game rules, feel free to take a look:⬇️

Click HERE

-or-

⬇️HERE⬇️

⬇️Here are some of the cards digitally, as well as an example of a card in real life!⬇️

After creating our final design after peer critique, tweaking our rules, and laminating and printing our cards, we had finally finished! I also ended up creating a card case for the question cards to be put into as well. I am really happy with the final game, it is fun to play and especially fun when it gets competitive! For one of the last phases of our project, we presented our game to our fellow classmates. We had a game day in which we tried out some games and had people play our own game as well! It was very fun to see the game concepts, some were very creative and every game I played was fun. I was also able to host Exponent Rodents for one round and my peers seemed to really enjoy it!

⬇️Unfortunately on game day I forgot to take photos of classmates playing our game, however I took some photos of how our game looks like, I hope it will suffice!⬇️

🌲Overall, this project was very fun, and was a great way to start off the Grade 9 year! I learned a lot in this project, both about exponents, and expanding my previous knowledge of creating a game. Erik was a lovely partner and I am very happy with our final game result. Looking back, I think that there are many things I could have done differently, but overall I am proud of my final work. So, How does math make games for complex, interesting, and re-playable? Well, in “Exponent Rodents” math added structure to our game. I believe that our game could have been many different themes, but the math is what makes it a strong and memorable game. I think math adds a layer of challenge to any game. I loved the way our game turned out, and I think this was definitely one of my favourite scimatics projects so far! 🌲

as always, thank you for watching me grow in the forest of

🌲learning🌲