For the love of the game
The Game-a-thon Challenge is all about showing off your innovative skills. The mission? To design a creative game to solve math problems.
This sparked an interest from three Tiger Woods Learning Center (TWLC) members, as they found a way to bring their game to life for the the Game-a-thon Challenge.
Ethan Pang, Danny Arceo and Nevyn Aguilar were recognized as a top-five team in the 2015 Game-a-thon Challenge sponsored by the MIND Research Institute. These individuals worked diligently during the month of July, developing an educational video game that focuses on regular and irregular polygons called The Polygon War.
The TWLC members described how the game works.
“In the Polygon War video game, players will control Geo Metry to launch regular polygons in order to destroy irregular polygons. The game consists of a level, quiz level and boss level. Players can also read the definitions of each polygon from triangles to octagons. They use the arrow keys to control Geo Metry, and launch regular polygons by pressing the number on the keyboard corresponding to the number of sides on the polygon. You can win the Polygon War by conquering the first level of irregular polygons, completing the quiz and defeating the final boss battle.”
“[Their game was] such a creative use of the math concepts and loads of fun to play,” Mark Humpert, user experience designer from the MIND Research Institute, said about the team’s efforts. “I hope they keep it online so we can continue to share it with people here.”
Pang, Arceo and Aguilar received commemorative pins, certificates of participation, a thank-you video, original JiJi artwork and trophy (JiJi is the beloved penguin figure in the Mind Institute’s math research games). The student video will be showcased in the Game-a-thon Hall of Fame, which is a permanent showcase of annual Game-a-thon top entries. The students also received an invitation to the Math Fair in Chicago. In addition, the board was so impressed with the student work that they will be sending each team member a Sphero, a robot that links technology with learning.
Watch a video demonstration and play a demo of the game. For more information on the Game-a-thon Challenge, please visit the MIND Reseach Institute site.
Congrats to these creative and innovative students! Game on!
