Games in a box to train and consolidate the notions of geometry, arithmetics and algebra in lower secondary school and make children the protagonists of the learning process in a new, engaging and exciting way. 

THE SERIES

The series Math, What a challenge! was born from the intuition of creating games with similar modalities to the most popular ones, practicing and putting into play Geometry, Arithmetic and Algebra skills from the main topics on which the teaching of mathematics in lower secondary school is based. Through play, children recognize what they study in a non-school context and acquire and understand it in a new perspective. A stimulus for revision, studying, or for a better assimilation of the contents.

THE GAMES

Math, What a Challenge! - Algebra

Three original games in a single box to practice and consolidate the main concepts of algebra in the third year of lower secondary school with fun class challenges. A new way to stimulate students to review and better assimilate content.

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The kit is composed of 3 different card games:

Go and Return

Match the largest number of products with their decomposition, or vice versa.

DIDACTIC OBJECTIVES Learn to read algebra and the known products from left to right and vice versa by training to grasp the structure of the formulas Identify any weaknesses or misunderstandings by simulating the exercise together with peers

Decipher

Write algebraic equations read aloud by the other players in the mathematical language.

DIDACTIC OBJECTIVES Acquire mastery of the formal language and recognize its functionality to describe first degree expressions and basic concepts of algebra in a synthetic way

Got-It

Resolve the algebraic equations to eliminate the most numbers possible from your list.

DIDACTIC OBJECTIVES Practice solving first degree equations. Recognize impossible and indeterminate equations.

Leaf through the instruction booklet translated into English.

Math, What a Challenge! - Arithmetics

In a single box, three original games created to practice and consolidate the main concepts of arithmetic covered in all three years of lower secondary school, through fun classroom challenges.

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The kit is composed of 3 different card games:

Dominù

The game, similar to classic dominoes, consists of chaining together expressions according to their result, in order to explore the concept of equal and class equivalence and understand how the same number can be represented in different ways.

Decipher

The game consists of writing arithmetic expressions read aloud by another player in mathematical language, in order to master formal language and recognise its use in describing arithmetic expressions of various kinds in a concise manner.

MATabù

The aim of the game is to allow your team to guess as many words as possible, drawn from the pack of cards in a set time, without uttering the forbidden words. The aim is:

• to reflect on the definitions of the main concepts of arithmetic, on the mathematical language to describe them and on common language
• to be able to identify and describe the characteristics of numbers and operations
• to express concepts in simple but scientific language
• to explain which concepts are unclear

Leaf through the instruction booklet translated into English.

Math, What a Challenge! - Geometry

In a single box, two original games to practice and consolidate the geometry notions covered in lower secondary school. Learning by playing is certainly a fun and never boring method to consolidate learning, in the classroom and at home!

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The kit is composed of 2 different card games:

Kualè

The game consists of being the first to discover the card chosen by the opposing team by asking the players questions that can only be answered with YES or NO. The cards represent geometric figures. The figures can be concave or convex, regular or irregular, they can have parallel sides, they can have congruent angles, they can be polygons or non-polygons.

MATabù

The aim of the game is to allow your team to guess as many words as possible, drawn from the deck of cards within a set time, without saying the forbidden words. The words to guess are mathematical concepts chosen from Euclidean geometry, in particular angles, triangles and quadrilaterals.

Leaf through the instruction booklet translated into English.

THE EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES

Learning by playing is definitely a fun and never boring method to consolidate some concepts, the games proposed in Math, What a challenge! allow students to:

• Reflect on the definitions of properties of objects, on the mathematical language used to describe them and on common language;
• Know how to identify the properties that distinguish geometric figures and arithmetics rules;
• Express concepts in simple but scientific language;
• Explain which concepts are unclear;
• Recognize geometric patterns and arithmetic features, describe the characteristics and identifying features of some shapes and numbers;
• Classify and order shapes and numbers based on their properties.

THE AUTHOR

Grazia Cotroni is a Mathematics and Physics Teacher in secondary school. Since 2009 she has been in charge of the Bottega di Matematica with the DIESSE Association, she is a trainer on the topic of didactic innovation.