Nim and Ximo Games

When I was teaching high school math I often used the first two versions of Nim that are found in this flipchart. At the start of the school year I'd use them for filler if we had five or ten minutes at the end of a class. Some students loved them and would challenge me to games throughout the year. The simple tools in this flipchart make it quick to set up and easy to play.

The third version of the game is one that I created called Ximo. It hasn't been universally loved, but it is exactly what I wanted it to be--a variation that makes each game a new challenge.

Playing "One Brain Against the Class"
This could be a fun, ongoing way to play each day in an advanced class if you have Expressions for your students. It is suggested that the individual and the class each make one move a day as part of any other warm-up for the daily lesson.

1. On the game setup, label the rows of the setup r1, r2 and r3. (If you're playing the Tactix game, label rows and columns.)
2. The player who is taking on the class (which should probably be the teacher the first time) takes a turn as usual.
3. For the class' turn, start a Text Entry question using Express Poll.
4. Students can enter their move suggestion on the Expressions. No discussion allowed! For example, with the 3-row version of Nim if they wanted to remove two disks from row 2, they would enter r2,2. It's important that they use strict conventions on entering moves. See the note below for trying this with Tactix.
5. After the vote, view the results. Remove the dots that were suggested by the most students. For example, if r3,4 was the number one response, take 4 dots from the third row. Again, students need to follow the exact format on entry so that the results are counted correctly.
6. If there's a tie for the number one move suggestion you can either randomly select one or have the class vote on the tied moves using Express Poll again.
7. Play until the individual player or the class wins.

Tactix is more complex for entering the moves. Label the rows and columns. Players will indicate which dots are removed by row or column number, then a number range for the dot(s) removed. To take the first three dots from column 1, for example, they would enter c1,1,3 (first column, dot 1 to dot3). r4,3,4 would take dots 3 and 4 from row 4 and c3,5 would be used to take just dot 5 from column 3.

Be sure to check out the entry at Wikipedia if you are unfamiliar with the game. Several other sites can be easily found that allow you to play online.

This one at Math.com has been entertaining.

Tips for using the games and activities

• My games are posted here at Promethean Planet.
• Time is precious in most courses, so consider how to break the activity or game up into short pieces. For example, the games that pit contestants against each other can be played one round or even one player's turn per day for just minutes at the start or end of the class period. It's always better to leave students wanting more and looking forward to the next play rather than extending a game beyond its welcome in one long session.
• All games and activities are loosely based on the subjects and content specified at the site. I expect teachers will tweak them by changing words or other content in the games. All rules are open to change as well so that they fit your needs. They're best viewed as starting points for activities. Please let me know if you come up with some great variations!
• Focus on the thinking and the possible discussion that can emerge from the games. There are a lot of ways the competition aspects can break down, so make sure the students know that the emphasis is on fun and learning. Cutthroat competition can turn into cheating and hurt feelings quite easily.
  
• Most of my games posted at Promethean Planet can be useful even if you have minimal equipment. Usually a projector connected to a computer is enough. You'll need to download ActivInpsire and install it as the Personal Edition (for free) and you'll be able to take advantage of many features of my games. With a little creativity you can make them work even if students do not have response devices to vote with.

Also, since I'm posting general information, I should mention that not every activity and game that I post has been played with students in the exact form that I posted online. I used games in the classroom when I taught for 13 years, I ran our high school game club and designed party games that are sold worldwide. I have a good feel for what students will enjoy and what will be useful for discussion and assessment. Still, my current position doesn't allow me to test every flipchart activity fully. They are always based on variations of things I have used in the classroom and I do take opportunities to test them (or my colleagues test them) whenever possible.

Consequently, I value any feedback you might have on what works, what doesn't and what could work better. I'd love to partner up with any educators to create quality games, so feel free to send ideas and input my way!

Split Decision Classroom Game for ActivInspire

This fun game about creating tough choices can be downloaded from here.

Overview
Three students will compete to create tricky decisions for the class to vote on. Each round a topic will be selected and they will pose two options to the class. For example, if the topic is Food a student might write, "Eat a whole onion or eat nothing for two days." The class will vote on which they'd choose and the student who wrote the decision will score depending on how evenly the results are divided.

See notes at the end about how this game came about.

How to Play
Pick three creative students to be the contestants. If you're playing the game in one sitting, they probably should sit at the frong of the class. Each of them needs a piece of paper and a pencil. You can go to page 3 of the flipchart and record the players' names on the Score page at this time.

The rest of the class will vote, so hand out the Expressions or Votes to them.

The game is played in three rounds.

Round Overview:
1) Draw a random prompt for the round. On the Decision screen (slide 2) you'll see 10 red dots at the bottom. Draw one or have a student draw one. Move the word to the black rectangle in the lower left so all students can see it. That's the topic for the round.

2) The three contestants now write a Decision based on that topic. Here are some details:

• The Decision consists of two options and they have to make up the options.
• The goal is to make the two options equally appealing in some way so that the class vote will be evenly split between the two.
• Enforce a time limit if you think it will be necessary. Any student not done at that time must quickly write something
• Two bad choices can be more fun and challenging, so you might want to require these kinds of Decisions. Alternatively, you can keep it open ended and let the contestants decide how they want to approach the topic.
• When they finish, the students must pass their papers to the teacher. Before presenting them, read the submissions and be sure they're acceptable. Any student who wrote something clearly off topic or otherwise inappropriate should either quickly fix it (if that's reasonable) or have the Decision disqualified. In that case, he or she will score a 50 point penalty. (Points are not good in this game.)

3) Now mix the Decisions so the class does not know who wrote each one and perform the following steps for each:

• Read the two options from a contestant. It is important that from this point on the class does not discuss the options. Some reaction will be inevitable, but comments and conversation need to be limited.
• Write them on the board with one option in the A box and one in the B box. If they are long, wordy options, you might want to just summarize them when putting them in the boxes.
• Start the vote and and have students select one. In every case, the students must pick one even if they'd like neither. Encourage them to choose the best or the one that's least bad. If a few students take too long to vote you might choose to stop the vote early for the sake of time.
• After the vote, view the results and score the Decision for the contestant accordingly. The score is the positive difference between the percents (rounded to a whole number) of students choosing A and B*. So, for example, if 37% chose A and 63% chose B, you'd take 63 - 37 to get a score of 26 points for the contestant. Always subtract the higher minus the lower so the scores are positive. Remember that a 50-50 split is the ideal, which means the student would score 0 points. So low scores are best.
• Record the score on the paper next to that Decision. Repeat step 3 for the other two Decisions.

4) Go to the Score page and write in the Scores. After round 2 and 3, total up the scores so far.

For round 2 and 3, return the papers to the contestants and repeat the above steps.

The game ends after round 3. The player with the lowest score wins. If there's a tie you can choose to have a tie breaking round between the tied players or you can just allow multiple winners.

Some example Decisions

• Meet Shakespeare or Meet Edgar Allan Poe?
• Get a great job with low pay or Get a dull job with good pay?
• Write an 8-page report for Science class or Read a 200-page novel for English?
• Camp alone at the South Pole or Camp alone in the middle of the Sahara Desert?
• Witness the signing of the Declaration of Independence or Hear the Gettysburg Address?

Notes
This game was born out of an activity that I did with a group of students in a Mythology class. We were making a different game that posed two choices and I noticed how challenging yet fun it could be to create balanced options. When thinking about activities that used the Expressions or Votes, a class vote seemed like it could be a great way to test the students' creativity.

*Years ago I read over the rules to a game called Ostrakon. I have never played it, but I know the goal is to pose a balanced philosophical question to the other players. As I said, I came up with my game from a different direction, but I don't know how much Ostrakon influenced my thoughts. So I want to mention that game since people who enjoy Split Decision might want to check it out.

Please let me know if you have any comments or suggestions for Split Decision!

Oh, Really! Games for the Classroom

I made the game that became Oh, Really! about ten years ago. It is based on the simple idea of ranking random items in order of importance. You can learn a lot about people by seeing how they rank things and that's where the fun of the game comes from. Do I know my friends as well as I think I do? Do they know me?

When I was teaching, I used the game as a warm-up activity for lessons on priorities and goals. The students loved it. During game club or when we had some extra time at the end of the hour we would play the card game too.

The Games for Promethean's ActivClassroom
When I saw the Sort in Order questions in ActivInspire for the Expressions, I knew right away Oh, Really! would work well as a flipchart activity. I put together the first version in the summer of 2010 and posted it. It contains all 200 cards from the game. (Permission was granted from the publisher, Find It Games, to use the artwork in these flipcharts.)

The original Oh, Really! game for the classroom can be downloaded here.

More recently I started doing the editions for specific classes. Each of these have sets of five pre-selected items that fit well with the indicated courses. Most words are straight from the original game, but some are modified to work best for the subject matter.

Oh, Really! game for Government class
Oh, Really! game for Family and Consumer Science classes
Oh, Really! game for Vocational and Career classes
Oh, Really game for Speech and Debate classes

All my games and activities for flipcharts can be found on this page.

And if you or some of your students are interested in the story behind how the game was created, I have an article here about how the original game grew from an Einstein quote to something played the world over.

Games and Activities for Promethean's ActivClassroom

I started this blog to highlight my games and activities that I'm posting at Promethean Planet. As they develop and as I create more of them, I will want a central place to present information. Other learning activities and creations will likely show up here as well.

For now, here is my author page at Promethean Planet:
http://www.prometheanplanet.com/en-us/Search/resources/?Author=1005530

Most of the activities are based on my party game Oh, Really!, published by Find It Games. I created some versions that can be played in the Government classroom. Also, there are some tailored toward Speech, Debate, Vocational Skills and Family/Consumer Ed.

I also have two activities based on a Haiku game that I made. One of them would work well in a Mythology classroom.