Board Games:

The Secret Sauce to Building Problem Solving Skills

BOARD GAMES: THE SECRET SAUCE TO STRONG PROBLEM SOLVING SKILLS

As you may have guessed from this picture of my game collection, I absolutely love board games.

If your last meaningful experience with board games was endless, torturous rounds of Candyland with a 5 year old, you will be blown away by how far tabletop games have come in the last decade. There is a vast amount of incredibly well-thought-out games out there that are interesting, fun, engaging, stimulating, and great for all ages.

From a teaching standpoint, what I find to be the most beneficial aspect of games is how they stimulate people’s minds. At the end of the school year, parents often ask me what summer classes they should sign their child up for so their child can catch up, keep up, or get ahead for the next school year. What is most important during the summer is that a student’s mind continues to be stimulated. If students aren't actively thinking, then their brains, like any other muscle, will atrophy and turn to mush. That brain stimulation, however, can be achieved through attending camps of their interest, travel, games, and a variety of ways other than academic classes.

I am here to endorse board games as a way to keep brains of all ages active at all times of the year. Whether you win or lose is completely unimportant, the important thing is using your brain and having fun.

Reasons that games stimulate brain activity and learning:

* Problem based approach to learning - There is a meaningful puzzle to be solved. You're not doing math for math sake, you're solving a real world problem.

* Learning by doing - There is an opportunity to explore multiple pathways. Games are also a situation where it is safe to fail. Learning by failure is a major component of games.

* Informative feedback - You get constant, explicit feedback during a game and you constantly adjust, constantly seek to improve and move towards the goal. Nobody likes to keep losing!!!

* Progressive growth - To steal from the slogan from the Othello game: A minute to learn… A lifetime to master. You start at your unique individual entry level and make progress at your own pace.

Here's a great TED Talk about the evolution of games and what goes into process of designing a good board game.

Soooooo…

Do you want your child (and your family) to push their brains to the limit?

Do you want your child to engage in productive struggle and develop skills in perseverance?

Do you want your child to employ effortful thinking while solving a problem?

Then buy some awesome board games and start a family game night!

New to the hobby? No worries, I'm here to help. My top 5 recommendations for those making their first foray into the board game world. Find one that sounds appealing to you and give it a try!

FOR SALE: A fast-paced real estate game where you’re trying to maximize property value as well as outwit your opponents. Use your cunning to get the best deal in town (3-6 players, playing time: 15 minutes)

SPLENDOR: Create the most fantastic jewelry to become the best known merchant of them all. I love this game - good strategic thinking, fast paced, easy to learn, great components, extremely satisfying gameplay. 2014 Spiel des Jahres (Game of the Year) nominee. (2-4 players, 30 minutes)

PATCHWORK: Don't let the seemingly mundane theme of quilting scare you off from this terrific two player game. You and your opponent compete for Tetris-like pieces to assemble your quilt as efficiently as possible. You have to think a few steps ahead both for yourself and for your opponent in order to be successful. (2 players, 15 minutes)

TICKET TO RIDE: The map of the U.S. is a blank slate for you and your opponents to build a system of railroad lines. Complete as many routes between cities as you can in an attempt to earn more points than your opponents. 2004 Spiel des Jahres (Game of the Year) winner. (2-5 play, 30-60 minutes)

SANTORINI: To win the game, move your builder to the top level of the tower... It's as simple as that. Along the way, you must strategize how to plan out your tower building and also keep your opponent from ascending to the top level. Add in different god powers that you can assume to drastically change gameplay and you have an amazingly fun, strategic, abstract game. This is one of my top three favorite games of all time! (2 players, 10-20 minutes)

Want to learn more about a board game before you buy it?

Want to hear reviews of board games?

Want to learn to how play a board game (either before or after you purchase the game)?

The Dice Tower is an excellent YouTube channel that has reviewed pretty much every board game since the beginning of time. Before I buy a game, I always watch the Dice Tower video to see how it is played so I can try to figure out whether I would enjoy the game.

So go ahead, try a new board game today!

Have a favorite game that is not on this list? Please, please share! Tell what about games you like and what specifically that you like about them. I'm always looking to expand my game collection. Email me at RLEW@AUSDK12.ORG

My personal game profile: In 1973, Goro Hasegawa came up with a game called Othello. The slogan for the game was, "A minute to learn, a lifetime to master." That sums up my personal game tastes really well. I like a rule set that is light to medium so that the learning curve isn't huge. I like games that have relatively simple rule sets but which I can use a lot of different strategies on. I prefer games where my decisions have a much greater effect on the outcome of the game as compared to sheer luck. Once in a while, I can enjoy a good party game, but I generally prefer strategy games.

Read on to see more of the games in my collection.

PORT ROYAL: A push-your-luck game where you accumulate coins, powers, and victory points. How far are you willing to go to get the best cards? (2-5 players, playing time: 20-40 minutes)

WINGSPAN: Wingspan is a competitive, medium-weight, card-driven, engine-building board game (2-5 players, playing time: 70 minutes)

SUSHI GO!: Strategically collect the sushi combination that accumulates the most points. (2-5 players, playing time: 15 minutes)

CASCADIA: Create the most harmonious ecosystem as you puzzle together habitats and wildlife. (2-4 players, playing time: 45 minutes)

AZUL: While tile-laying may not sound like a very exciting endeavor, I consider Azul a cutthroat puzzle game. While your are working on perfecting your own masterpiece, you're simultaneously finding ways to keep your opponent away from the pieces that they want. (2-4 players, playing time: 30 minutes)

DOWNFORCE: Racers, start your engines! Experience the thrill of maneuvering Formula One cars around the track in this racing board game. Do you have the skills to drive your cars to victory? (1-6 players, playing time: 40 minutes)

BLOKUS: Who can most efficiently place their own shapes as well as block their opponent’s efforts? (2-4 players, playing time: 30 minutes)

ONE NIGHT ULTIMATE WEREWOLF: There are two werewolves and a group of villagers. Werewolves try to keep their identity a secret while villagers try to figure out who are the werewolves amongst them. This game requires quick thinking and bluffing on everybody's part. Super fun party game for groups of 5 or more! (3-10 players, 10 minutes)

SETTLERS OF CATAN: Your adventurous settlers seek to tame the remote but rich isle of Catan. Guide your settlers to victory by clever trading and cunning development. 1995 Spiel des Jahres (Game of the Year) winner. (3-4 players, playing time: 45+ minutes)

NO THANKS: Super simple yet exciting game of pushing your luck. Think playing chicken while thinking about probability... (3-5 players, playing time: 15 minutes)

SURVIVE: ESCAPE FROM ATLANTIS: Race to escape the sinking island of Atlantis with the treasure that you've found. To survive, you must elude sea serpents, whales, and sharks. Who in the world wouldn't like a game where they get to eat their opponent's meeples with sharks? (2-4 players, 45 minutes)

BLINK: Race your opponent to see whose brain can most quickly categorize objects. (2 players, playing time: 10 minutes)

PRIME CLIMB: Ingeniously designed game where you’re using math operations in a race to 101. (2-4 players, playing time: 10 minutes per number of players)

CENTURY SPICE ROAD: Century: Spice Road is the first in a series of games that explores the history of each century with spice-trading as the theme for the first installment. In Century: Spice Road, players are caravan leaders who travel the famed silk road to deliver spices to the far reaches of the continent for fame and glory. (2-5 players, 45 minutes)

STOCKPILE: Buy low! Sell high! Use your insider stock tips wisely! Fantastic stock market game that is simple to learn and has a number of extremely interesting features. Suspenseful, exhilarating, satisfying... I love this game! (2-5 players, playing time: 40 minutes)

STRATEGO: A battlefield game where you are trying to defeat your opponent’s army through cunning and deceit. (2 players, playing time: 35 minutes+)

BOHNANZA: You’re a bean farmer trying to get the best possible deal in a furiously frantic trading game. Despite the fact that this game has caused many marital conflicts, it remains one of my all-time favorite games. (3-7 players, playing time: 45+ minutes)

CARCASSONNE: Who can most efficiently develop their roads, cities, and field (or thwart your opponent’s progress)? 2001 Spiel des Jahres (Game of the Year) winner. (2-5 players, playing time: 30 minutes)

CASH N GUNS, SECOND EDITION: The big heist may have been a success, but it all goes wrong when every crook wants a bigger cut. Players try to intimidate their opponents into letting them have the largest share. (4-8 players, 30 minutes)

CODENAMES: A social word game with a simple premise and challenging game play. Stretch your brain to find creative ways to make connections between words. 2016 Spiel des Jahres (Game of the Year) winner. (2-8+ players, 15 minutes)

DIMENSIONS: A fast-paced 3 dimensional puzzle game where players try to position their spheres to earn as many points as possible. (1-4 players, 30 minutes)

ISLE OF SKYE: You are the chieftain of one of five famous clans and you are trying to build your little kingdom to earn as many points as possible. Point scoring criteria change every round, requiring strategic planning as you design your kingdom. 2016 Spiel des Jahres (Game of the Year) winner. (2-5 players, 45 minutes)

JAIPUR: Go head-to-head with your opponent in this two player game to find the best deals so you can become the official merchant of the Maharaja. (2 players, 30 minutes)

LOST CITIES: Two explorers embark on research journeys to remote corners of the world. The explorer with the highest score after three rounds of expeditions wins. (2 players, 20 minutes)

QWIRKLE: Qwirkle is the perfect game to hone player's tactical maneuvers, strategical planning, and forward thinking. The rules of the game are basic: simply build lines by matching tiles based on either color or shape, and score points for doing so. 2011 Spiel des Jahres (Game of the Year) winner.

(2-4 players, 30 minutes)

THE RESISTANCE: A social deduction game where you must figure out who the spies are before they sabotage the team's mission. How good are your bluffing and deduction skills? (5-10 players, 30 minutes)

TIMELINE: How good is your knowledge/sense/intuition on historical dates? Your task is simple: take a historic event and place it in the correct place on timeline. (2-8 players, 15 minutes)

UBONGO: Race to rotate, slide, and flip the Tetris-like pieces until the fit together properly. How good are your spatial visualization skills??? (1-4 players, 25 minutes)

LAS VEGAS: Test your luck at the tables in Vegas! You start off your turn by rolling a die, but how you play the die is actually more important than what you roll. Will you beat the odds? 2012 Spiel des Jahres (Game of the Year) nominee. ( 2-5 players, 30 minutes)

FUGITIVE: One player is the marshal, the other player is the fugitive. In this tense, two player game of deduction, the marshal attempts to track down the fugitive while the fugitive is desperately trying to make his getaway. (2 players, 20 minutes)

HANABI: In this challenging cooperative game, players hold their cards so that only the other players can see them. Players must give each other vital information in order to determine what cards to play in an attempt to win the game. 2013 Spiel des Jahres (Game of the Year) winner.

SABOTEUR: Friend or foe? That's what you must try to figure out as you and your team of dwarves try to find the hidden gold. Is the person next to you trying to help achieve the goal or are they trying to sabotage the mission? The dwarves must find the gold before time runs out while the secret saboteurs try to thwart them.

FORBIDDEN ISLAND: The natives have triggered the island to start sinking as you and your team attempt to steal the four treasures off the island. Can you work together well enough to capture the traits'm treasures or will you be doomed to sinking into the ocean?

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