“The children really got into the game, and you could hear good reflection statements and questions. they were learning.” – Daniel O’Keefe, Curriculum Designer, Institute of Play
CIRCLES is a multi-player territorial game that reinforces the concept of Circumference = 2 x π x Radius. In this game, players are divided into 2 teams and each team holds the correct value of π in their controllers. Teams are competing to capture as many circles as possible with matching circumferences. Each circumference is created by pairing their π value with a roaming radius in the space. The process of creation is companied with a robotic voice saying “1, 2, 3, and a little more!” which is directly connected to the π lesson prior to the SMALLab experience. If the circumference matches the target circle perfectly, the team captures the circle and scores! However, a mismatch offsets the team’s π value and deactivates their controller temporarily until the value counts back to π again.
SMALLab Team:
Kyle Li <SMALLab PL/Game Designer>, Lena Kotani <Math Teacher>, Daniel O’Keefe <Curriculum Designer/Learning Expert>, Shulamit Ponet <Mission Lab Game Designer>, Richard Bowman <SMALLab IT>