Gamify Your Math Assessments: Yes YOU Can!

This year I have been so disappointed with the math assessments I am asked to give students. I let students use any tool but a calculator on the assessment, yet many do not take me up on my offer. I was not sure if it was the student or the test, but firmly believe it is the poorly written test. Students have struggled with the assessments since September. I have given students two weeks to earn more points as I feel the learning stops once a final score is placed on a paper.

I am able to gain an understanding of student math work through the course of the topic, and during topic 8 students really took off. However, their class test score average was in the 40s. I needed to do something fast as I was uncomfortable sending these scores home to parents. What message does this send to parents? I decided to turn our Thursday math block fixing the assessment into a video game. Inspired by speakers at FETC I realized that using gaming strategies encourage and engage students in activities, meeting them where they are at.

When I announced the day before we would be fixing our math assessment like a video game, the excitement to work on an assessment went through the roof. Students were trying to imagine how this would look. They wanted an avatar and avatar names. I asked them things that are in their video games as students quickly realized I was thinking about “old school” games. I wanted students to be part of the learning experience and work towards understanding math concepts, earning more points and having fun.

Googling Legend of Zelda (as the new version has a lot more in it then my original Nintendo version) I made a chart for students about what things could mean in our game. I thought about items (hearts, wands, a clan, etc.) and how many kids could get throughout the activity. Then I realized items should have a cost. I gave each child a budget of $100 and attached a cost to each item available to purchase. This will help children choose wisely about supports they are able to use along their journey. I thought it would also be important for students to reflect on their thinking process throughout the game, so I made a column for students to share why they chose the item and what happened as a result of their choice.

Students were then asked to reflect on their experience, thinking about the game and their process for a Flipgrid. Students all felt successful using the tools they could purchase. I loved hearing their enthusiasm for retaking a math assessment designed as a video game. I am considering allowing students to take assessments in this manner. Feeling successful builds self confidence in math skills. Instead of feeling torn down about original scores, students were going home and showing off their work with pride. Gaming in education has a place, and I am beginning to see a huge value to it!

If You Build It, They Will Come: STEMPalooza hits Jordan/Jackson

Shoeless Joe told Ray Kinsella in the classic movie Field of Dreams, “If you build it, he will come.” A similar mantra occurred in our school building, if you build it, they will come. Our colleague, Jenn Keller, had a brilliant idea to create a month-long event for our school called STEMPalooza. Her idea was to continue to build a rich STEM culture where all students had access to at least one STEM activity during the month of February. Work done will be shown off at our school-wide STEMPalooza Showcase in March.

This kind of risk-taking Jenn took allowed her to build a team last summer of invested and passionate educators. Working collaboratively, the team created a Google Site composed of rich STEM tasks for grades 3-5 that could be integrated across the content area. The STEM Squad kicked off the event at a staff meeting, providing time for educators to go through the site and choose activities or ask questions about the work ahead.

I chose to do the NCAA basketball challenge since we do the book bracket challenge in March. I spoke with our health teacher about joining us, and she was thrilled to be included. She planned to do a lesson on heart rate when activity is increased using the resting state, walking, jogging, running upstairs, and dribbling a basketball as examples.

The BIG DAY came. Students were excited, and a buzz was in the air. We started off our activity by thinking about if newspaper can hold a basketball. Students made predictions and discussed with classmates. We watched a basketball being tossed through the air and shared where the science was in the toss. Words like force, distance, speed, and gravity were shared. Students headed to the STEM lab, assigned to a group with an NCAA college basketball name. They had to use the engineer design process to create a tower that held a basketball for 20 seconds.

Students were engaged for three hours. They were clear communicators, as observed by our math coach who came to support us. Some groups used their failures to help guide their planning, being flexible in their thinking. The best part of all, they asked if we were going again for another STEMPalooza activity. I am so proud of our colleague for encouraging us all as the students reap the benefits.

I captured our experience in an Adobe Spark to share with parents so they could discuss STEMPalooza at home.