Note: This activity was updated on 12/30/2024 with a better sequence of game histories and discussion about the nature of science. If you are looking for the original files, you can send me a message on my contact page but I'm really confident that these updates are good ones :)
The Set Up
The Task
I typically introduce the task with an opening like this:
"This board game was recently discovered in the back room but there weren't any instructions in the box so we don't know how to play. Luckily, we have a recorded history of games that were played by players that knew the rules. From these example games, I need you to recreate the list of rules so that we have something to add to the box for the next people that want to play"
After having some time to watch or recreate "Game A", each group was asked to write out the rules in as much detail as they could to reference when we compared notes together as a class.
Here are some examples of the rules that my students came up with:
After 5 minutes or so, we came back together as a group. Together, we create a an "Official Classroom Rules" document in the front of the room by each group sharing a rule one at a time until we didn't have anything new left to add. We star or circle any rules that we define as "fringe rules" where the students find some creative patterns that seem true for Game A but don't feel confident that they are necessarily universal to the game as a whole.
The Follow Up
Ultimately, I close this task by bring the conversation back to how this process resembles the process of science, and more specifically, physics. In physics, the laws of nature were never provided as a list of rules or equations that were just written down somewhere. Instead, the "rules" that we discuss were formulated by observing how nature operates.
Some highlights from past discussions that I've had with students and teachers
Next Steps
There are 4 other games without rules like this one included in David Maloney's post about "Learning the 'Game' of Science". The one that this is based off of is called "SciGame Delta". I found the other ones to be considerably more difficult and, honestly, I wasn't able to completely make sense of any of the others in the time that I spent exploring them. This doesn't mean the the students couldn't do it though. In fact, it could make it that much more exciting of a challenge. :)
Files
This file contains the game board, game pieces, and the records of "Game A" and "Game B". I printed out the game pieces of red and yellow paper to match with the Y and R designations on the game records but it isn't necessary to figure out the game play.
Animated Game Histories
To simplify the logistics of the activity, I put together some high quality animations of the 2 game histories. These videos or animated GIFs can be shared with students or groups to make observations and determine the rules of the game. There are some cases when I prefer the tactile exploration from the game histories but this does a pretty job satisfying the overall goal :)
Other Introductory/Teambuilding Tasks
Comments
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