Students make alliances to win game

December 18, 2014

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In a few of Mr. Elsasser’s math classes recently, students played a game called ZAP. ZAP is a flexible game that can be played in any class. Students are split up into groups and take turns answering questions.

If the group gets the question correct, they get to draw a ZAP card. The cards have directions on them like, “Add two points to another team’s score,” “Add one point to your own team’s score,” “Switch scores with another team,” “ZAP your own score” and “ZAP all teams’ scores.”

As you can see, some cards help your team, but others may hurt your team or help another team. This makes it so the team that answers the most questions correctly may not be the team that ends up winning the game.

“It was interesting to see students try to build alliances with other teams so those teams are more likely to reciprocate the gesture later on in the game,” Elsasser said. “Overall the students seemed to enjoy the game, so it will be something I will include as part of my classes in the future.”