Can Math class be like Speed Demon?
Have you played this game?
Pull back the plunger and launch the ball onto the spinning platform. If it lands in one of the speed demon spots you move on to the next phase where you use a button to stop the light as it travels around the concentric circles. You move to the next smallest ring only if you stop the light on one of the arrow spots. Ideally you want to reach the center where you receive the biggest prize. Of course, the light spins faster as you move from ring to ring upping the difficulty.
As I was playing this with my son, I was thinking about why it is so much fun to play even though you don’t actually reach the spinning stage all that often and even when you do you might not even get past the first ring. We must of put 10 dollars into that machine and had a blast doing it.
I think the thing that kept us coming back for more was the sweet taste of victory. Even though we tasted it very infrequently it was still enough that we knew it was there and attainable.
I’m wondering how many math students don’t have the kind of success that keeps them coming back for more. Or worse yet, ever get to a place where they feel like they are even playing the game. They are, to some degree, learning or repeating but it’s disconnected for them. It isn’t part of a coherent whole. Like they are lifting all the weights but never playing in the football game. Or they are learning all the scales but never playing a gig.
So, how do we help kids achieve some level of success where they are engaged enough to put another dollar in the machine? Or maybe more importantly, how do we get them into the game at all so that they feel like what they are doing has a measurable outcome that is worth something to them?
