An engaging and original escape book for lower secondary school children, designed to review and consolidate mathematics learning while having fun!

THE SERIES

The series PLAYSCAPE is comprised of games and books inspired by the Escape Room model that take some principles and apply them to different school subjects.  The materials in the series offer stimulating adventures that involve solving codes, puzzles, brain teasers, and riddles linked to specific educational content. On each page of the text, readers will find the clue that will allow them to move on to the next step, until the mystery is solved. Each book can be ‘played’ alone or in a group: in the case of cooperative use, everyone wins or loses together. In a completely original and fun way, children and young people will thus be able to consolidate their learning and enhance their logical skills, lateral thinking and reasoning at the same time.

DESTINATION BELLATRIX – MATH

Destination Bellatrix is a volume in the Playscape series which is specifically aimed at students in lower secondary school for reviewing and consolidating mathematical learning.

Find out more!

CONTENTS

This escape book involves readers in an incredible space adventure, where original thinking and logic skills will be indispensable in order to complete a complicated mission: to track the Numerion spacecraft and lead it to its destination in the Bellatrix solar system.

The topics treated in this volume are: Positional representation of numbers, Difference between number and digit, Addition and multiplication in columns, 0 and 1 as a neutral element of addition and multiplication respectively, Preceding and following a number, Factorisation in prime numbers, Arithmetic problems with several steps and articulated texts, Graphical representation of fractions, Measurement of lengths, Measuring and drawing angles using the protractor, Drawing a parallel line passing through an external point to a given line, Coordinates on the Cartesian plane, Classification of triangles, Problems with relational data, Criteria for divisibility, Equivalences between units of measurement, Order of operations in expressions, Position of lines in the plane, Naming regular polygons, Number decomposition into units, tens and hundreds 

In this volume you will find:

a series of exciting mathematical puzzles to solve, each marked by a 3-digit numerical code and accompanied by a QR-Code to scan in case you need help (for each puzzle there are 3 clue levels: 1st clue, 2nd clue and solution);

a map of the Numerion spacecraft to be detached and consulted along the way;

two set squares and a protractor to cut out from the cover, which are useful for solving some puzzles;

a game progress chart, to be updated with a cross after solving a puzzle, and the table of contents upon which each puzzle is based.

HOW IT WORKS

To complete the mission, the players must:

1. READ THE STORY
2. SOLVE THE PUZZLES

The puzzles do not follow a linear sequence in the book, so it will be fundamental to make choices while keeping some indications in mind:

 
If, by solving a puzzle on a page or on the map, you find a 3-digit code, you will need to go to the book page which shows the same code in the upper right corner. You cannot reach a place without first finding the corresponding code.

 
If the solution to a puzzle is a code with more than 3 digits, then it is a clue that will be useful for solving another subsequent puzzle.

 
If the solution to a puzzle is a 5-digit code, then it is one of the three essential codes to start Numerion’s engines.

The volume can be used by a single player, or in a group of up to 4 players.
Each puzzle corresponds to a score of 0, 2, 5 and 10 points, depending on the number of clues used. The collaboration of everyone will therefore help you successfully complete the game without using clues, thus obtaining a higher score!

Leaf through some selected pages from the book that have been translated into English to facilitate your evaluation:

THE AUTHOR

Andrea Maffia is a mathematics teacher and he also studies learning processes.  He loves games, and believes that the best way to learn mathematics is through play.