I am a Lebanese guy who recently graduated from Yale University in the US. I have been teaching 4th and 5th grade (8ème et 7ème) math in a public school (متوسطة الأشرفية الرسمية المختلطة) in Beirut, Lebanon, since October this year. Other posts on teaching and my experience (this is the second one) can be found on this blog with the label [Teaching].
In this post, I will explain (1) why I started creating mini computer games that helped kids improve their math skills, (2) which games I've made so far, and (3) what I have learned + where I want to go in the future.
(1) Why/how it started:
I have a B.S. in Computer Science and, at some point, I realized that I missed coding. I started learning web programming (HTML+CSS+JavaScript+jQuery) at the end of last year, and I thought it would be cool if I could improve my skills while making stuff that the kids would like. I went to the school's computer room, looked through all the hardware, put aside the stuff that didn't work, rewired a few things; it turned out I had 4-5 Windows XP machines that worked alright. I installed an old version of Firefox I found on www.oldapps.com, and I was ready to go.
In class, I'm always experimenting with new games; these are as simple as splitting them into two teams and asking them questions for points. I found out pretty fast that kids suddenly becomes geniuses when they are playing games. I knew my students love winning very much, so it seemed obvious to me that I could capitalize on that through a computer game. In addition, I thought that a computer game could provide a good change of context that could energize and motivate the kids.
(2) Games made so far:
I have made 4 games so far; I'm putting them in chronological order. All the games are in French; I'm happy to translate them if anyone wants to use them in a math class taught in English!
Ilana (you can check her art out here) helped me out with picking colors for the first two games, and we made the last one together (she did the layout + appearance and colors, I did the coding) with some color advice from my sister Riwa.
The games have been tested on Chrome and Firefox only; if you're using IE or Safari I feel sorry for you.
In this post, I will explain (1) why I started creating mini computer games that helped kids improve their math skills, (2) which games I've made so far, and (3) what I have learned + where I want to go in the future.
(1) Why/how it started:
I have a B.S. in Computer Science and, at some point, I realized that I missed coding. I started learning web programming (HTML+CSS+JavaScript+jQuery) at the end of last year, and I thought it would be cool if I could improve my skills while making stuff that the kids would like. I went to the school's computer room, looked through all the hardware, put aside the stuff that didn't work, rewired a few things; it turned out I had 4-5 Windows XP machines that worked alright. I installed an old version of Firefox I found on www.oldapps.com, and I was ready to go.
In class, I'm always experimenting with new games; these are as simple as splitting them into two teams and asking them questions for points. I found out pretty fast that kids suddenly becomes geniuses when they are playing games. I knew my students love winning very much, so it seemed obvious to me that I could capitalize on that through a computer game. In addition, I thought that a computer game could provide a good change of context that could energize and motivate the kids.
(2) Games made so far:
I have made 4 games so far; I'm putting them in chronological order. All the games are in French; I'm happy to translate them if anyone wants to use them in a math class taught in English!
Ilana (you can check her art out here) helped me out with picking colors for the first two games, and we made the last one together (she did the layout + appearance and colors, I did the coding) with some color advice from my sister Riwa.
The games have been tested on Chrome and Firefox only; if you're using IE or Safari I feel sorry for you.
- Quelles Droites: tests students' knowledge of the difference between parallel, perpendicular, and intersecting ("concourantes") lines. I choose to ignore the fact that perpendicular lines are also intersecting.
- Multiples de 2, 3, 4 et 9: tests students' understanding of criteria of divisibility by 2 (last digit is a multiple of 2), 3 (sum of digits is divisible by 3), 4 (last two digits for a multiple of 4), and 9 (sum of digits is divisible by 9).
- Comparaison de fractions: tests students' understanding of how to compare fractions (make their denominators the same or compare them to 1).
- multiXO: definitely the most advanced game so far. This game is a 2 player variation of XO (tic-tac-toe) where each player picks a square and needs to win a small challenge (testing multiplication skills) in order to put their mark (X or O) on that square.
(3) Lessons and future direction:
A few things I have learned:
- Kids learn super fast when playing computer games! But we should keep in mind that anything new is exciting to the kids, and that the gains would diminish considerably if they played computer games every day. The most important thing to keep the students motivated is using many different techniques and tools for teaching.
- Let them play (and lose) and then explain! After playing for a while and being unable to make progress, the kids will want to listen and understand what they need to do if they want to win. Some of the "least mathy" students performed amazingly well when that approach was used because their curiosity was triggered.
- Kids love games, but they get bored quickly! One day, I had to take care of my students for a free period; I agreed to take them to the computer lab, and I let them play a game they had already played. They were so excited at first, but they got bored really quickly and it was a little bit demotivating :( but I learned to always leave them wanting more.
- Kids hate losing! multiXO took a lot of time to produce, but kids who lost in the first round got demotivated and lost interest very quickly. So it's useful to make the game more open-ended and make the competition about beating your previous score as opposed to beating your classmate.
