Tomb raiders have stolen prized treasures from various locations, instilling a curse. The player is charged with returning the treasure in the least number of moves to advance levels and collect all three stars. Curse Reverse is designed for middle schoolers learning algebraic expression building.
In order to escape from rooms, you have to adjust the height or length of elements (bridges, elevators), set by algebraic expressions through manipulating the value of the variable or the coefficients of the expression.
Type of Material:
Development Tool
Recommended Uses:
The material would be well suited to use for in-class activities or individual self-paced homework, exploration and assessments.
Technical Requirements:
Computer or tablet with internet connection
Identify Major Learning Goals:
Players build platforms and paths using algebraic expressions. Understanding that variables can request quantities is key to students’ pre- algebra learning.
The goal is to master the evaluation of algebraic expressions when the variable is substituted.
Target Student Population:
Middle School
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:
Evaluate a numerical expression.
The goal is to be able to substitute a value for a variable in an algebraic expression.
Computer skills. Definitions such as variables, constant,
Content Quality
Rating:
Strengths:
Sliders allow students to adjust the value of variables inside an algebraic expression, or the algebraic expression itself, in order for the evaluation to reach some target. The gamification allows for persistance in working with more and more complex expressions. At ends of levels, some institutionalisation is performed in a more formal way. Trial and error is not enough to gain three stars, you have to forsee the value before trying it out, evaulating for example 2y-1 and 2y+1 at the same time in order to escape in as few moves as possible, or not destroying some elements.
Use variables to represent numbers and write expressions when solving a real-world or mathematical problem; understand that a variable can represent an unknown number, or, depending on the purpose at hand, any number in a specified set.
Concerns:
Only non negative numbers are considered for variables. The use of parenthesis and decimal or rational numbers is postponed very far in the game.
Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool
Rating:
Strengths:
You get to evaluate a lot of simple expressions, this game seems really effective. You can try out things, but if you want to win all stars, you really have to be smart. The gameplay is interesting, allowing for the changes of whether the variable to be evaluated, or the expression coefficients, having to think about several expressions at the same time not to reach forbidden values for some expressions. The didactical variables are well thought.
The student will make sense of problems and persevere in solving them, model with mathematics, attend to precision, and look for and make use of structure.
Concerns:
The institutionalisation is shallow and much simpler than what is expected in the classroom. At the end, students will have certainly played and learned, but meta-cognition might not occur, they might not be able to assess exactly what they have learnt.
Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty
Rating:
Strengths:
You can try out and see for yourself what happens but if you want to win, you have to pause and think. Speed is not of the essence here, which is good, you have time to reflect.
The game is easy to use. The game contains teacher guide, Curse Reverse poster and number locks sheet to print for the students.Â
Creative Commons:
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