It’s all fun and games in math class

By Stuart Hedstrom 
Staff Writer

    DOVER-FOXCROFT — Seventh-graders in Nichole Martin’s math classes at SeDoMoCha Middle School recently spent some time getting “board” by creating their own games for their peers to play, with the activities all incorporating recently learned mathematical concepts.

Observer photo/Stuart Hedstrom

    GETTING BOARD IN CLASS — SeDoMoCha Middle School seventh-graders Michaleb Niles, left, and Timothy Mazzeo created a paper football game involving fraction and decimal conversions as part of a unit in math class. Students in Nichole Martin’s four math classes designed board games based on recently learned topics.

    “They have to create games,” Martin said, saying the students in her four classes could choose to work individually or in small groups on their board games. “They got to choose a specific topic from the unit we just went over and then they had to make a theme for their game.”
    The projects needed detailed directions to enable students to play the games without the presence of the creators, such as instructions and answer keys to questions asking about math topics. “It’s a good way to wrap up the unit and have fun,” Martin said.
    “I’m going to have about eight games per class,” Martin said, saying the seventh-graders will create close  to 30 total. “They have been having fun playing each other’s games and answering their questions.”
    Timothy Mazzeo and Michaleb Niles designed a replica football game, complete with a gridiron — with the SeDoMoCha nickname Eagles and the school’s maroon color in the endzone — and upright goal posts. “Our unit is about converting fractions to decimals and decimals to fractions,” Mazzeo said. “What our game is about is paper football.”
    Under their game rules players flick a paper football at the uprights, with successful “kicks” resulting in points and then a question card for the chance at earning more points. The cards include both easy and hard questions involving the conversion of decimals and fractions, with the penalty of losing points a possibility for incorrect answers. The first player to tally a score of 100 points wins the game.
    Mazzeo and Niles’ game includes a miniature fan, which can be turned on if a player gets five questions in a row correct. This option enables a player to have the chance to win the game then and there, if they can first get the paper football through the uprights, despite the breeze, and provide a correct answer to the conversion question.

Observer photo/Stuart Hedstrom

    READY FOR PLAY — Grade 7 students at SeDoMoCha  created games in math class, with each using concepts such as fractions and decimals. To left is a game created by Hunter Watt and Dustin Simmons based on “The Hunger Games” while Gavyn Moreshead used “Pacman” for his game, right.

    Hunter Watt and Dustin Simmons made a game based on “The Hunger Games” books and movies. Watt said their game involves “turning fractions into decimals and percentages.”
    He explained the board game has players choosing characters from the series and then moving along the board toward the cornucopia at the finish. A roll of the dice determines the difficulty of the question, with the harder conversions resulting in a move of greater spaces.
    “If you land on the same space you have a fight,” Watt said, as players both have a question with the winner of the battle determined by who gets the correct answer and then being able to move forward with the other moving back. Watt said a “mutt” from “The Hunger Games” is also represented in the board game, with a piece for the creature moving along the spaces chasing the players.
    “Mine is a ‘Pacman’-themed board game,” Gavyn Moreshead said, with the game of positive and negative fractions designed for two to four players. 
    He said the object is to collect as many “point pellets” as possible by correctly answering questions along the spaces to reach the finish. “You answer a questions and there’s a point value on the bottom,” Moreshead said about the game cards. He said he worked on his game during three class periods as well as at home over the Thanksgiving break.
    “Mine’s called Owl’s Adventure, it’s a game to practice absolute value,” Madison Hall said about her game which includes both a board with spaces and a decorated cover. “It’s an owl who goes on an adventure during the night.”
    Hall explained that the players’ owls try to collect bread, a flag, gem and map along the board. “The first person to get all four wins,” she said. Those playing Owl’s Adventure roll dice to move along and then get colors with corresponding place card with questions pertaining to the absolute value of numbers.

Observer photo/Stuart Hedstrom

    GIVES A HOOT ABOUT ABSOLUTE VALUE — Madison Hall created Owl’s Adventure, the Game of Absolute Value! for her project in a grade 7 math class at SeDoMoCha Middle School in Dover-Foxcroft.