Inferential Games (Non-Digital Games)

This is a game that can be used to really help students begin to conceptualize comparisons. It can also be used to help review history if you ask students to put events in order from oldest to most recent (or vice versa). Here is how the game works:

1. You tell students to rank some examples. (As an example here, let's say that they are asked to rank the hardness of fingernails, gold, iron, chalk, and diamonds from hardest to softest.)

2. Students are allowed to choose to rank as many as they feel they can. In the example, if Student A knew that diamonds were the hardest, and that iron was harder than the other three, and gold probably came third, they would likely just rank those three. If student B really knew their hardness scale, they might guess all five in the correct order: diamond, iron, gold, fingernails, chalk. Student C isn't sure about the last two, but guesses diamond, iron, gold, chalk, and fingernails.

3. Each student scores themselves (or you can hand it to someone else for scoring). Student A would get three points, as they guessed three, and those three were #1-3. Student B gets five points, as they correctly ranked #1-5. Student C gets zero points, as even though the first three were right, as soon as a mistake is made, they score zero.

The link below will allow a group with a minimum of four people to play online completely for free.

PDF Sheet: Breaking Rank Main Folder

A few examples: List of examples for Breaking Ranks

Of all the games on this site, I'd argue that this one might be the one that is the most recreational with the least amount of induction and dedcution. I first started using this game when actually teaching about pollenation in Science 7, but found that students enjoyed it enough they wanted to keep playing it throughout the year. The best part is that it can quickly be drawn on a scrap piece of paper.

Instead of quickly running through the rules here, there is a website that gives you a quick introduction to this two player game, and if you go under the "i" menu, there are some variations to this game that students can experiment with.

Dandelions: https://mathgameswithbaddrawings.com/games/dandelions

Where were you in the 1980s? If you were at anyone's house and you weren't sure what to do to pass time, you could be quite certain that they had a copy of this game--you just needed to find one other person who wanted to play it. Mastermind is a great game where you place a combination of colours (as pegs), and then you are told how many colours/peg you have that are the right colour, and how many pegs are the right colour and in the right location. Now, since you aren't told which specific pegs are the right colour (or in the right place and the right colour) you need to make all of these inferences. 

While there are a good number of sites on the internet that have this game, what is really great about the site below is that there are many ways you can modify the game: the number of pegs and the use of numbers on pegs (for colour-blind people, or people who prefer the use of numbers) are just one way such modifications are present. Another great addition on this version is that you are able to see how many combinations you should be able to deduct to based on your previous plays.

Play online: https://supermastermind.github.io/playonline/game.html

Instruction manual: https://instructions.hasbro.com/api/download/44220_en-in_mastermind.pdf

YouTube overview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsYPsrzCKiA

This is somewhat of a variation of Tic-Tac-Toe, but it is certainly different enough that it deserves its own title. The game works like this:

1. Two players decide who would like to be "Order" and who will be "Chaos."

2. The idea of the game is that Order is trying to get five consecutive symbols horizontally, vertically, or diagonally, and Chaos is trying to prevent that.

3. Order begins, and they can place an X or an O anywhere on a 6 x 6 grid.

4. It is now chaos' turn, and they can now play and X or an O anywhere on the same grid. 

5. Note: throughout the game either person can play an X or an O.

6. The game is over when Order gets five in a row or Chaos prevents that from happening.

PDF Document: Order and Chaos Sheet

Play online: Order and Chaos

Here is a fun game that can be integrated well into units that have quantitative measurements, but can also be used when you have a class with six minutes left and you aren't sure what to do. The game works like this:

1. Ask the students to estimate a value. Be sure to be very clear on what unit you are asking for the value in. (As an example, we will use the height of Mount Everest.)

2. Students then each estimate, on the sheet that goes with this game, a range of values. (For this example, we will say that Student A answers 8 000 - 9  000 metres, Student B put 8 500 - 9 000 m, and Student C put 5 000 - 6 000 m.)

3. You look up the answer. In this example, the answer is 8 849 m.

4. You ask the class how many people were correct. In this case, two people were right. You then ask them how wide the spread of their range was. 

5. When there are two correct answers, the person with the smallest range (Student B) gets two points and the person with the larger range (Students A) gets one point. (Note: another variation to this is that you can say that the person with the smallest range gets ten points, and then each person with the next smallest range gets one less point.)

6. Since Student C guessed a range outside of the correct value, the teacher gets a point. (You can also put a limit on this; if you have a class of twenty students and only two students get points by landing in the range, the teacher gets a maximum of five points instead of eighteen points.)

7. Lastly, here are three suggestions: 

-Look to use whole numbers (when looking up Mount Everest on Wikipedia, it said 8848.86 m)

-Be very clear regarding the unit you are using.

-If involving dates, round it to the closest year. 

PDF Document: Outrangeous Sheet

A few examples: Outrangeous Question Examples

This is a game where many former students have really enjoyed making their own cards for this game. Here is the way you can have your students create a deck of cards to play this game:

1. Take either 4"x6" or 5"x7" index cards and cut them in half.

2. Ask students to create their own deck by creating cards. A deck should be a minimum of 32 cards.

3. On the side of the card with lines, place the year that a scientific event/discovery took place, and then outline the discovery/event.

4. On the blank side of the card, place the event and a simple illustration.

5. You may want to place initials on the cards to know whose cards are whose.

6. Once students have created such decks, follow the rules at the PDF below, or try playing a one-person version online (that focuses on events from many different fields) to get an idea of how to play this game in groups of 2-6.

Free Online One-Player Variation: https://wikitrivia.tomjwatson.com/

Instructions PDF: https://images-cdn.asmodee.us/filer_public/69/28/69280f5c-fbeb-4be0-9bf7-9d682d369fea/tim04_rules.pdf

We've all played Tic-Tac-Toe; this takes rules that people are already familiar with, and makes it a far more interesting game for students of all ages. (I've had students in grade eleven who would work hard to have spare time at the end of class to play this game). 

The basic idea of this game is that you place your symbol (let's say an X) in the center of the game in the top-left game. Now your opponent, the O, can place an O anywhere in the game in the center (since that is where you placed your X). When you win a game, you place a giant X or O over that game. If your opponent makes you play on a game that is already finished, you are allowed to play anywhere. If you want to give it a try, there is a link below to play it online.

These instructions are also at the top of the worksheets that can be found below.

Ultimate Tic-Tac-Toe Online: https://www.michaelxing.com/UltimateTTT/v3/

Ultimate Tic-Tac-Toe (8.5"x11"): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1n28aZsDsZdcxTKrL0Of0y1Pvaldk-CDr/view?usp=drive_link

Ultimate Tic-Tac-Toe (11"x17"): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pFt19fbM35b5LW3Zdf7ufDtnVmvHgMsJ/view?usp=drive_link