Can you picture the eye-roll that inevitably comes when you start across the room with a stack of worksheets? I hate it. Don't the kids know that I would never have them do something that I didn't believe was in their best interest? I don't like being bored. And I really don't like watching bored people. Neither do you. You would rather have constructive conversations that silence. You would rather have positive energy being spent on your activity. You would rather have them invest in the process themselves than have you beg and plead and nudge and cajole and threaten and ... you get my point.
I found a number of years ago that I could reinvest the time that I would have spent making another worksheet and invest it in making a game. At first it was intimidating. I thought I needed a fancy board, or cool cards, are perfectly balanced strategy. But what I found was this. Kids will play with almost anything. And if I could make a worksheet, I just might be able to turn it into a game. You can too. Here are some basic tips to gamify your content.
Just Try It
I think the first step is really just putting one foot in front of the other. You don't have to be a master game designer. You don't have to know how to create a game with seamless game play. You don't have to create anything that is colored, laminated, boxed or even cool looking. Just try taking a basic worksheet and make it a game.
2. Make sure the central game play is the basic skill you are teaching.
This is a big pet peeve of mine. I have bought a few science games hoping that they would be great for teaching content in my class. But the primary mechanism just isn't educational. The game might just use protons as points. "Gather as many protons as possible and then you win." That isn't a helpful skill for my classroom. It doesn't further the students' understanding. And I hate that. So I ensure that the focus of the game is the skill that I actually want the students to have. Sometimes this makes the game design challenging. But it is worth it. You don't want to spend precious time in your class having students practice something that won't be on the test. Or won't make them have a deeper understanding. Or won't connect to the next skill. If you want to have students learn about protons, neutrons and electrons, then the game play bad better be focused on how protons, neutrons, and electrons effect elements, isotopes and ions. This does limit how many games you can produce. But it is worth the effort to ensure that at the end of a game, your students are better prepared for success in your class.
3. Use simple game mechanics.
I will admit it, I am a burgeoning game design nerd. I've listened to hundreds of hours of podcasts on game design theory. I am going out on a limb to guess that you haven't. (But if you have, then you are my people!) When I get a new game at home, I am scanning it for mechanisms that I could use in my classroom (And with a closet of well over 100 board games, I have a few mechanisms in my head). But what I have found is that teenagers don't play board games. Shocker, I know. So the mechanisms in your worksheet-turned-game need to be accessible. Play Go Fish. They can do that. Play rummy. They can do that. Guessing is good. Matching is good. Making series can work. Which is bigger is good. If you find yourself teaching the rules and game play more than you are teaching the content that it supports, your game is too complex.
4. Let there be a winner.
Games are meant to be won. In fact, watch what your class will do when you give them a worksheet. It will be a race. They will turn a boring worksheet into a game anyway! "I finished first, I win." Why not take that innate energy and turn it into a constructive conversation. Trust me. Kids know how to argue to win a game. Just yesterday I received a text from a teacher that was using my game Up & Atom in her classroom. She snapped a photo of a hand that had been played and asked who won. And that particular hand was actually a tie. But in my mind I could see this scene taking place. Both players scan the cards in their hand and recognize that they have the best card in the deck (159.80 grams of argon. Which is 4 moles of argon in this case). They are so excited to be able to play the most powerful card and win the hand.. They save their secret until the very last round. They are so excited to win. And when they both play their powerful card, they get stopped in their tracks. One player plays 1.81 x 10^23 atoms of argon (which is only 3 moles). Both claim to have 4 moles of argon. On a worksheet, they would look at each, shrug, and move on to be the first to finish. Not in a game. They argued about it. The talked about how to divide mass by atomic mass to calculate moles. They talked about dividing a number of atoms by Avagadro's number to find the moles. Do you see what was happening? They were arguing over moles. They were deepening their understanding. (In all honesty, when she texted me the picture below asking who would win, I had forgotten my glasses at home and didn't zoom in, so I missed the question. But here I am explaining it to you, so I must have learned from the game as well). The energy, conversation, strategy and entertainment that come from having a game with a winner will absolutely pay off.
5. Make the rounds short.
Kids get bored quickly. Don't drag a game out so that it takes 48 of your 50 minute period to play one round. If they play lots of quick rounds, more winners and losers are determined. It also allows you to change the groups up. If you have a group that only wants to mess around, aplit them up after the next round. It's easy if the rounds are short.
6. Offer rewards for winning.
Oh boy, I just opened a can of worms. I have taught for over twenty years, and have never given out candy in my class. You don't have to buy things. Yesterday, we were playing the prototype of my newest game CHeMgO in class. It is an ionic formula bingo game. I offered the winner of each round this prize; on the next test they could ask me one question, "Mr. Koch, is this right?". And I will answer them honestly. It feels like something tangible in the game. It feels real for their grade. So they competed for it. Kids were honestly getting so tense waiting for the next card to be drawn that their blood pressure was rising. Then once a kid called "CHeMgO", they had to have all the right formulas written in their five in a row. The kids would hold their breath waiting to see if the real winner had been determined. It was great.
7. Make your game ugly.
In the top drawer of my demonstration desk I keep a giant stack of blank "cards". Actually they are one-sided copies that I accidentally made that I had my TAs chop into playing card-sized pieces. They are ugly. They aren't square. Some of them have AP biology diagrams on the back and can get a little spicy if you know what I mean. They are ugly. I will tell the students what to write on them in order to create a game. Some are writing in sharpie, dull pencil, crayon they found on the floor. They are ugly. But once they are in the game. That all goes away. As a teacher, you can spend so much extra time trying to make things look right, that you will miss the opportunity just to have a game for kids to play in lieu of a worksheet. Ugly is OK.
8. Keep a smile on your face.
Guess what, your game might not work the way you wanted. But think about it. In that class period playing your broken game, the students were focused on the content you want them to know. They were having conversations about how to figure out the content. They were manipulating the content for their advantage. They were getting so many reps. And deep reps. Sounds like something to smile about, even if at the end of the day, that game lands in the garbage can. Your next one will be great!
Yes, this is a blog about making your own games. And yes, I make games that I would love to sell to you. If my games help your class or inspire you to make your own, that is a win. If you can spare two minutes, check out the unboxing video of my newest game CHeMgO. It explains how it will help your class. It is currently on pre-order for 20% off the list price.
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