Dr. Heidenreich will share his experience teaching the Cold War by having his students play the game "Twilight Struggle". This is a good talk if you're interested in doing something similar.
Foster deep learning by having your students play and analyze games. Dr. Heidenreich will share his experiences of teaching “Math of Games for Liberal Arts Majors” over the past seven years.
Description:
Dr. Heidenreich developed a ‘Math for Liberal Arts Majors’ class based on analyzing games. In this talk, he will describe how the class is designed to foster deep, embodied learning of mathematical thinking using a combination of ‘teaching’ games designed to illustrate principles in statistics, as well as ‘real’ games like King of Tokyo, Settlers of Catan, and Magic: the Gathering. He will also reflect on how the class has grown in the seven years he’s taught it.
Can't find a game that teaches what you need to cover in class? Why not create your own? A fun look at educational game design.
Description:
Dr. Heidenreich has developed many simple pen and paper games to teach math skills and topics in his College Algebra, Pre-Calculus, and Calculus courses. In this session we'll cover the theory of quick game design, tips, and pitfalls to watch out for. As a concrete example illustrating these things, we'll play some of his games in the session. Free copies of the rules and materials for these games will be distributed to any who request them.
I will discuss how to apply principles of good game design to the classroom. I will demonstrate several games I've designed to teach topics from College Algebra, PreCalculus, and Calculus I.