Design a Game
10 min
Narrative
The purpose of this Warm-up is to elicit ideas about the elements that make a good game, which will be useful when students design their own game in a later activity. While students may notice and wonder many things about these images, constraints that make a game challenging, rules that make the game fair, and the way someone can win the game are the important discussion points.
Launch
- Groups of 2
- Display the images.
- “What do you notice? What do you wonder?”
- 1 minute: quiet think time
Teacher Instructions
- “Discuss your thinking with your partner.”
- 1 minute: partner discussion
- Share and record responses.
Student Task
What do you notice? What do you wonder?
Sample Response
Students may notice:
- Someone is dropping a marble into a tube.
- There’s a measuring tape at the end of the tube.
- There are 2 pennies in a cup.
- There are 10 pennies altogether.
- Someone is flipping a coin towards the cup.
- Are these games?
- Do you have to roll the marble the furthest?
- Why does the tape measure start at 40?
- Do you have to get the pennies in the cup?
- Do you get points for getting pennies close to the cup?
Synthesis
- “What makes a good game?” (It’s challenging, but not too hard. The rules are clear. You improve at the game the more you play.)
- “How do you think you might win each of these games?” (Get the most pennies in the cup. Roll the marble the farthest or closest to a certain number on the tape measure.)
- “What are some ways you could design each of these games to make them challenging and fair?” (You have to stand far enough from the cup to make it challenging to get the penny into the cup. Everyone gets the same number of pennies to toss into the cup, so they get the same number of turns. Everyone has to use the same type of tubes to design their marble run. Everyone gets three tries to try to make their marble go the farthest.)
Standards
Building Toward
- 3.MD.4·Generate measurement data by measuring lengths using rulers marked with halves and fourths of an inch. Show the data by making a line plot, where the horizontal scale is marked off in appropriate units— whole numbers, halves, or quarters.
- 3.MD.B.4·Generate measurement data by measuring lengths using rulers marked with halves and fourths of an inch. Show the data by making a line plot, where the horizontal scale is marked off in appropriate units–-whole numbers, halves, or quarters.