Ok so we’ve been working on this for a while now and I’m aware that it all went a little quiet for about 3 or 4 months.  The motivation factor of using the DS’s in class wore a little thin – or rather the class got used to them and started finding ways to ensure they managed just enough work to be allowed them.  The game became more of a toy than a learning tool and I had run out of ways to use the results of our races with the tennis stars so they were locked away in the cupboard for a time.

Very slowly our charts began to fill up as individuals were allowed to play games as a treat or reward.  We also made it through 2 sets of assessments, Christmas mayhem, a whole school evacuation – not a drill – and several snow days.  It was now the middle of winter term and time to ditch the project or resurrect it.  3M7 have a lot to thank my PLN and Twitter for because it was comments from you guys that moved me forward.

As I mentioned our class races had come to a natural end.  Looking forward I wanted to use the information that we had collected in the individual races.  From the beginning we had been writing down the total time for the race and the fastest lap for each game.  This in itself proved to be a learning  experience as some struggled to identify the best lap and most struggled with the format of the time.

First task was to get the information onto something more usable in the classroom than the posters that were being completed on the wall.  So we had a class discussion about the format of the times and then split into pairs.  Each pair was allocated a character and given 4 coloured cards – one for each of the cups.  They wrote their character name on each card and moved around the classroom completing the race times on the cards, working together to ensure the format was indeed correct.

Race Cards

Finding Times

Next we collected all of the character’s cards for each cup together, split into 4 groups and used them as an ordering game – fastest to slowest.  After this was completed and the misconception that the highest number was the fastest had been shot down by the pupils and confirmed in a less confrontational manner by me we did the exercise again using 2 sets of cards.  When we put the Orange and Green cups together we found an overlap in the fastest lap for one and the slowest for another which raised a good discussion about why.  Perhaps one was longer than the other, or harder, or the drivers on the slower race were just rubbish!  Regardless of the reason or ensuing argument it was the project and the pupils’ own work which prompted the discussion and not a contrived exercise for which they had no passion or interest.

Sorting Race Times

Are you sure?

Moving on we met the trickier topic of Speed Distance and Time.  I was determined to use the race cards again.  The class is only expected to complete distance calculations given the speed and time.

We discussed the average speed of a journey from home to Inverness (30m/s) and the fastest average speed recorded for a grand prix win. (67m/s – from F1technical.com)  I had calculated both in metres per second for them to give some context and to simplify calculations but keep them realistic.  From this the class decided that our Karts probably had an average speed of 40m/s.  Their responses had a very wide range due to their perception of “kart”.  Some expected the karts to be much slower than cars and I was pleased that none suggested anything close to the speed of the F1 car.  I had to persuade them up to 40m/s to ensure the next part offered some challenge.

I explained that we would assume the average speed of 40m/s and use this to calculate distance for each driver in each race. “But, miss, the race is the same length for each driver!” Thank goodness. I heartily agreed and said we were going to estimate the actual length by using averages and the information we did have.

Back to the problem of the format of the times – a quick revision on rounding to the nearest whole number and the cards were split up again.  I handed out worksheets to help the pupils organise their work and we split into groups around the 4 different cups.  We moved around the class writing down all of the fastest laps rounded to the nearest second.  Once they were all completed we calculated the distance.  Working together they managed to solve the problem of multiplying by 40 without my input and they flew through close to 32 calculations complete with working in minutes.

Calculating distance.

Still working...

From here we will do calculations to find the mean distance and time.  I hope this will prove some of our earlier discussions about some courses being longer or more difficult than others.

There are still gaps in the scoreboard which leaves more room for discussion and opportunities to reward pupils.

Moving forward I am looking forward to completing a similar exercise with the power car.  I would like to use this to calculate speed using the distance we know from work already done.

In a real life context we are far more likely to know the distance and time or the distance and speed – I am going to try something similar to extend the course, it can’t possibly be considered a waste of time even if it is not defined in the SQA arrangements.

This is a project that the whole class are involved in.  As long as I can continue to move it forward then they will probably remain engaged.  All the better if I can keep it linked to work that is prescribed by the curriculum.

For now, the motivation to play games may well have dwindled but Mario continues to keep them hooked for all the right reasons.

The idea has been bubbling away nicely all summer and last week my thoughts finally pulled together into a feasible learning experience.

Based on discussions with the class, the restrictions of hardware and software, advice from my PLN and the curriculum restraints this is what I have chosen to trial this term.

There will be 2 leagues.

The first is a competitive league where 8 pupils at a time will race their tennis stars in a classroom battle.

How?  I have set aside 8 of the DS devices which I am hoping I will be allowed to retain in my classroom solely for the use of the project until at least Easter.  The pupils have chosen to name the consoles after tennis players (yes, Wimbledon was on at the time).  The league has been drawn up on a point basis.  The game will work out winners and points and the pupils will record these.  For now I will keep the info in a Google spreadsheet with a view to possibly getting the pupils to duplicate the worksheet in an ICT lab.

What learning outcomes am I addressing here?

• reading tables, graphs and charts
• draw conclusions and explain them from data
• take an organised approach to solving problems

We will have 2 races each session, hopefully 6 sessions this term.
2 each time to ensure the whole class has the opportunity to play.

This will leave us time in the last week to draw our conclusions.

The second tournament will be a time trial competition.

Within the game there are 8 characters who each have 2 cars and 4 cups which each have 4 tracks.
This leaves a lot of space for trial and improvement of the project.

So we’re going to attack the first track in each cup with each player’s 2 cars – that’s 64 races – that’s more than enough for 1 term.  This is an individual game so I’ll have to be careful about who’s getting to play.  The pupils will be able to choose which character, car and cup to race until all of the blanks in the posters are filled in.

Each time trial gives overall time and best lap data which will both be recorded.  The times are given in minutes, seconds and then decimal up to 1/1000 of a second.  This will set up learning outcomes about time beyond expectations of the course.  Extending easily into time calculations, we can also consider rounding, averages and further organisation skills.

So let the races begin!

Your feedback as always would be greatly appreciated.

This idea has been bubbling around me for a while now.

I’ve been reading a lot about ICT in the classroom with a particular interest in games based learning and then Adam Stevens, (@ahstevens) a contact I have made through Twitter mentioned that he had dabbled with Mario Kart and other racing games in the classroom to present some basics of distance/speed/time theory in physics.  Derek Robertson (@derekrobertson) and Ollie Bray (@olliebray) have provided further inspiration by sharing their own experiences of games based learning success.  Both are now working to spread good practice and I am pleased that they have offered me their support, albeit from the back of the car on the way home from the first Edu2020 (@edu2020) meeting in Duffies!

The pedagogy behind games based learning must lie in motivating pupils to learn by engaging them in the work being done through ensuring a common interest is found and utilised.   A great opportunity has presented itself for the new school year. I will be working with a Foundation Level maths class through 3rd and 4th year to formal assessment in May 2011.

The Standard Grade course will offer plenty of challenges to the pupils with the work covered but also many opportunities to relate work to real life scenarios and situations.  In addition it will allow me time to incorporate games based learning and the curriculum for excellence principles into our lessons.  My main learning intentions will focus on time problems, number, organisation, simple statistics and problem solving.  In addition the project will be designed to meet the 4 capacities of Curriculum for Excellence.  Although not strictly necessary for pupils at this age and stage in secondary school it will provide a richer learning experience at this level of work and anyway, it’s good practice for what’s coming!  Having had a quick glance through the arrangements these are the current outcomes I believe I can meet with Mario Kart.

• reading tables, graphs and charts
• line graph trends
• communication of data through tables, graphs and charts
• numeracy – add/subtract/multiply/divide calculations in context
• mean, median, mode
• check solutions
• experiment
• draw conclusions and explain them from data
• take an organised approach to solving problems

At this point I need to put out a prezi alert.  My planning has been done on a Prezi following a comment on Twitter from John Johnston (@johnjohnston) who mentioned that he had never considered using it as a planning tool until he saw a previous post by me – well, I had never considered it either until he said it!  I had been waiting for a flash of motivation and 10 minutes in front of my SMARTboard to plot my ideas into writing – indeed I had even started the Notebook file.

Anyway, the prezi is attached here.

So far, this project is a triumph of Twitter and my new and ever reliable personal learning network.  Since joining Twitter and joining in the chat I have found contacts, received support and criticism and, perhaps most importantly, been provided the ideas and reading which will realise this project in my classroom.

As the title of the post suggests, this is just the beginning – I have a long track to get around to see this project through with many questions about management, ownership, assessment and evaluation still to answer.  But I’m excited about pitching this idea to the class and hearing their ideas about how to proceed – am I already half way to a good outcome?