MinecraftEdu Maths - Ratio & Proportion...And A Whole Lot More

Me: "Right guys, 1 Minecraft block = 5cm x 5cm x 5cm in real life...build me our ICT suite!"

Quite a few hours and a whole shed load of mathematical discussion and reasoning mixed in with a fair amount of calculation later and we had our ICT suite.

It seemed too good to waste so we developed it into an adventure map - a bit like this one.

Children now start in a hidden room to read the game instructions and stock up on equipment. They then emerge into the ICT suite charged with completing the tasks set in order to get enough redstone to complete the circuit and escape from the room.

It's got all the adventure map staples like parkour, a glass maze, more parkour, hidden doors, dead ends, wild goose chases, problems to solve and obviously - a bit more parkour.

They skills we learnt and developed while building the room pale into insignificance when compared with those we encountered creating the adventure map:

• Redstone circuits aren't easy to make, especially those with timer loops and t-flip flops to turn buttons into levers.
• Glass mazes need a lot of planning.
• A quest of this size requires some serious story-boarding and scripting.
• Doing all of this with 25 year 6 pupils takes a fair bit of communication and teamwork.
• And on and on, you get the idea.

Now this year's Y6 are building level 2 - The Head Teacher's Office!

KenKen - Mental Maths Brilliance!

Although it may look like just another Sodoku spin-off, don't be fooled! Kenken is a serious mental maths workout. Ok, so the example given above is it little simple, but you need to start simple to learn. 

The rules:

1. The numbers you can use in a puzzle depend on the size of the grid. If it’s a 3 x 3 grid, you’ll use the numbers 1–3. In a 4 x 4 grid, use numbers 1–4. In a 5 x 5 grid… well, you can probably figure it out from there.
2. The heavily-outlined groups of squares in each grid are called “cages.” In the upper-left corner of each cage, there is a “target number” and a math operation (+, –, x, ÷).
3. Fill in each square of a cage with a number. The numbers in a cage must combine—in any order, using only that cage’s math operation—to form that cage’s target number.
   Example: Your target number is 5, your operation is addition, you’re using the numbers 1–4, and the cage is made up of two squares. You could fill in 2 and 3 (because 2 + 3 = 5) or 1 and 4 (1 + 4 = 5). But which number goes in which square? Read the next instruction!
4. Important: You may not repeat a number in any row or column. You can repeat a number within a cage, as long as those repeated numbers are not in the same row or column.

This is fantastic to use as a mental maths starter. You can get as many different difficulties as you like from the KenKen site. Try getting year 6 to work up to solving something like this...

...and in the process enjoy the benefits of having a games-rich classroom.

Fantasy Football

http://fantasy.premierleague.com (FPL) is the official website for fantasy football in the UK and it can be used to great effect in classrooms!

Firstly - it's fun! And if we don't have fun we might as well go home.

Secondly - it has numerous ways to be used in maths. I'll run you through the way I used it.

We began with a few football themed maths lessons. I made the broad statement, "I like football because there are lots of goals scored." This is nice and vague and can generate some good discussion. It allows for debate and opinions but can also be investigated. After pulling up the scores in the premier league for the last few weeks, we studied mean, mode, median and range and drew some conclusions.

But I wanted a way to keep this ticking over, so I introduced the class to fantasy football. I set up my team (with their help) and we discussed the need for a balanced team and also managed to stay within the £100,000,000 budget that the FPL website allows.

Once the team was picked I sent letters home inviting parents to set up teams with their children and enter the school league and see if they could beat the teachers. With the competition element, engagement was high and we were off to a winning start.

From then on we checked the scores on a Monday morning to see who the movers and shakers from the weekend were. I'd then use data from the league or teams within the league to set mental maths starters, generate questions in lessons or even base whole lessons on throughout the season. Some of the regular warmup activities were:

• What was the mean/mode/median/range of this week's scores?
• Which class has the highest mean this week?
• Who did best this week - girls or boys?
• What was the mean score or each player in a specific team?
• How many points behind Mr Hills is Mr Rothwell? 

You get the idea.

So from very little in terms of time invested by me, we got something that rolled on all year, fed nicely into lessons, got children using maths skills of their own accord, engaged parents, captivated pupils and all for free! 

It's year round ideas like these that will create a genuine buzz and will bring longevity to your games-rich classroom.