Data Games
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 Location9:00am - 3:00pm
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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
Chainsaw
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.
Inference Games
Overview: Make an estimate of a population parameter based on a sample
Click here to play Inference GamesShip Odyssey
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.
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
Playing the Games: go to the DG Public Page, or Games
DG Summer Workshop Wiki (for registered teachers)