Sarah and Eric have been teaching themselves how to code using Javascript, CSS, and HTML. The What Comes Next? game is the result of more than a year’s work. We are not fast coders! We used this meeting to share our game and to see if teachers might use it with their students.
To play the game: What Comes Next?
Note: You can also get to the game from the Adult Numeracy Network’s Play web page, which includes many other games and mathematical play spaces.
We started the meeting with the question, What games do you like to play and why?
Our group had a diverse range of interests when it comes to playing games and their reasons for playing. Some folks like word games, some like board games – also puzzles and sports made their way into the list. And some folks prefer not to play games. People’s reasons for playing were equally diverse – games can give us social connections, mental or physical challenges, new learning, or just plain fun.
Once we were in a gaming mood, we headed over to What Comes Next? with the instruction to play around, explore the levels, and find a level that is interesting or challenging.
Once we’d had a chance to explore, we talked about what we noticed and what we wondered. You may want to go play the game yourself before reading the following takeaways:
Some things we noticed:
- When I gave 3 correct answers I was offered a “jump ahead challenge.”
- I can get to negative answers.
- Just having 2 numbers isn’t sufficient. I usually asked for a 3rd number. More comfortable with more than 2 numbers.
Some things we wondered about:
- How many parts can change from term to term?
- What is a sequence?
- How many different types of sequences are there?
In the game, you try to figure out the next term in a sequence, but you can always ask for the next term if you haven’t figured out a strategy for guessing it yet. Here’s what one participant had to say about that:
I really appreciate the scientific method that is enabled by the fact that I can keep guessing and regardless of whether I’m right or not, I get the next number. Compare that to a paper handout with only the first three numbers to work with.
How to save a sequence code:
We wrote a feature into the game that allows users to save a sequence with a code, so they can return to it or share the sequence with other people. Two ways:
- Click Save Sequence button
- Click Print and look at print preview
These are the codes that were saved by participants in the meeting:
Level 2: R1FXJ2
Level 3: G040C02
Level 3: Q040C0088
Level 4: F080402
Level 4: F101008
Level 4: F140004
Level 4: Q100400C2
To load a sequence into the game:
- Click Give me a new sequence.
- Click Load sequence.
- Enter the sequence, not include the level.
After participants had played individually for a while and saved some of their sequences, we looked at a few sequences together.
Amy shared this sequence: R1FXJ2. She had four terms and was trying to find out the next term.
6, 7, 3, 0, …
Looking at this series of numbers, Amy asked herself, What is a sequence? She tried different mathematical ways of analyzing the numbers, but didn’t see any pattern in these numbers.
Other people in the group recommended that Amy get more numbers from the game in order to see what the pattern might be. We needed more data to understand the sequence, so we added more numbers to the sequence by choosing Give me the next term.
6, 7, 3, 0, 3, 6, 7, 3, …
You might see a pattern in the numbers now. We realized that there is a repeating pattern of six digits.
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Next, we looked at a sequence Deneise had been trying to figure out: Q100400C2. Deneise also had four terms and didn’t see a way to predict the fifth term.
4, 5, 9, 16, …
Deneise saw that 4 + 5 equals 9, but 5 + 9 doesn’t equal 16. That theory didn’t pan out (though something similar might work with other sequences), but Khom had a different approach. He looked at the differences between the numbers.
In a breakout room, Khom predicted the next few terms correctly to extend the sequence:
4, 5, 9, 16, 26, 39, …
Khom made the following notes to explain Deneise’s sequence:
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In another breakout room, Amy, Cindy, Connie, Lynda, Maggie, and Mark wanted to find an explicit formula for that same sequence (4, 5, 9, 16, 26, 39, …) and had quite a lot of interesting explorations on a jamboard.
We wrapped up the meeting by sharing our takeaways, both mathematical and game-related.
Group Conversation:
- What are your mathematical takeaways?
I had a contribution in a group over my head 🙂
All of those hours of filling out input/output tables and playing around with impacting the second difference in my notebook when we first started CAMI and exploring patterns came back as a set of tools! – I didn’t remember anything, but I remembered enough to re-discover things!
- What are your game/play takeaways?
It’s important to address the different skill levels that may be present in one group; to minimize student frustration levels and keep the group as cohesive as possible♥ – LOVE this suggestion. How would you do that in your class?
If it’s introduced as a game, I view it differently. I’m more open and more comfortable seeing things that I might not be comfortable with.
- How would you use this game with students?
Explore and discuss. I’m thinking to do this when we get started with classes next week!
We asked the group what would make this useful for students and teachers. We got some good feedback, but we’d love some more. Tell us at our feedback page: Tell us what you think!
What would make this game more usable for students? What features would you request?
