Data Games

Tools and Materials for Learning Data Modeling
Group Page: 
SERG
Contact(s): 
Konold, Cliff
Funding: 
National Science Foundation
Starting date: 
2009-09-01
by: 
Cliff Konold

Students playing computer games generate large quantities of rich, interesting, highly variable data that mostly evaporates into the ether when the game ends.

What if in a classroom setting, data from games students played remained accessible to them for analysis?

In software and curriculum materials being developed by the Data Games project at UMass Amherst and KCP Technologies, data generated by students playing computer games form the raw material for mathematics classroom activities. Students play a short video game, analyze the game data, conjecture improved strategies, and test their strategies in another round of the game.

The video games are embedded in TinkerPlots and Fathom , two data analysis learning environments widely used in grades 5–8 and 8–14 respectively. The game data appear in graphs in real time, allowing several cycles of strategy improvement in a short time. The games are designed so that these cycles improve understanding of specific data modeling and/or mathematics concepts. Lessons will be embedded in LessonLink from Key Curriculum Press to facilitate their integration into standard curricula. The three-year project expands research in students’ understanding of data modeling and their ability to learn mathematical content embedded in data-rich contexts.

For more project details see the Data Games Project Page at KCPT.

For the games developed at SRRI, see Games.

For games and activities, see Data Games product website - SRRI copy

Data Games Follow-up Meeting 2013

Time, Date and Location

9:00am - 3:00pm
Saturday, September 14, 2013

UMass Amherst Campus
Middlesex House Room 224
(C4 on the campus map)

Direction and Parking

Follow Google Maps Direction to Whitmore building (181 Presidents Dr, Amherst MA)

You can park at parking lot 71 which is immediately to the west of Whitmore building.
Middlesex House is right next to the west end of the parking lot.

Getting Ready for the workshop

For DG, the best web browsers are Google Chrome, Safari and Firefox. Make sure that your computer has one of those installed.

Follow the links below to check whether you have the most recent version of browser and Flash and update it if you don't:

Tentative Agenda

9:00am - 11:30am

Playing the new version of Ship Odyssey

11:30am - 1:00pm

Lunch (Bertucci's, Downtown Amherst)

1:00pm - 3:00pm

Ship Odyssey continue
Chainsaw
Inference Games
Plan for the coming year

Links

Games

Group Page: 
SERG

Chainsaw

Group Page: 
SERG
Contact(s): 
Konold, Cliff

Overview:

A player is given a target length. There are 4 logs of different lengths, not aligned with one another. The task is to cut the logs into pieces with the length as close to the reference length as possible.

Click here to play Chainsaw

Inference Games

Group Page: 
SERG
Contact(s): 
Konold, Cliff
Overview:

Make an estimate of a population parameter based on a sample

Click here to play Inference Games

Ship Odyssey

Group Page: 
SERG
Contact(s): 
Konold, Cliff

Overview:

The players are to find a hidden treasure by sending super-rats to locate the treasures. The rat readings are noisy, the players would have to figure out how to make use of this noisy data.

Click here to play Ship Odyssey

Student Accounts

User accounts for the Data Games Login (dg-srri) are currently only for students and teachers in our test classrooms. They are useful for saving student work between classroom sesssions, or setting up an activity inside the DG-SRRI window. Contact Jang Kreetong if you need to set up student or teacher accounts for your classroom.

This page is used by the DG-SRRI login window.

Student Passwords

Forgot your password? Contact the teacher in your classroom. Teachers in SRRI test classrooms can contact Jang Kreetong to create student or teacher accounts.

This page is used by the DG-SRRI login window.

Summer Institute 2012

Group Page: 
SERG
Contact(s): 
Kreetong, Kosoom (Jang)

Playing the Games: go to the DG Public Page, or Games

DG Summer Workshop Wiki (for registered teachers)