Miner Madness: Spring 2018

Middle school students are sitting at a table playing the Miner Madness board game. One student is reaching out and touching the pieces on the board while playing the game.

Summary of Game

Miner Madness is a collaborative, group player board game aimed at teaching critical and logical thinking. A team of miners has to navigate obstacles and avoid danger to uncover hidden treasure deep in the earth.

The team must work together to decide which direction to take, collecting gems, and finding other hidden treasures to make it easier to get to the finish and defeat the cave troll.

Keys to successful Gameplay include communication with other team members to combine moves and create functions in order to progress faster!

Patterns from Observed Behavior:

Kids are interacting well together.
They don’t understand the blank cards.
Many of the kids were silent during the animations, however, a handful of kids reacted to the gross humor.
The kids with previous knowledge of coding seemed to lead the group more often than those who had no knowledge of coding.

Patterns from Interviews:

What is the goal of the game?
- - To win.
  - To get to the end.
  - To get gems.
  - To survive.
  - To Mine.

What do you think about the game?

- - I liked it.
  - Good.
  - You have to think a lot. (Positive)
  - Many wished the game was longer and more difficult.
  - Some came out of the came with a better understanding of code theory.
  - Under first assumption before being explained many thought it was a game about Mining, not Coding.

A middle school student's hands are shown picking up the Miner Madness box and reading the back of it.

What was your favorite part of the game?

- - Event cards.
  - Getting gems.
  - Most enjoyed the team effort aspect that the game utilizes. However, a handful of students thought that the level of communication was difficult amongst their peers and wanted more competition.
    - They suggested adding in more variety to the traps instead of just fillable pits.
    - Thought most of the traps had no other point than to be an obstacle. Some wished there was more consequence.

Middle school students are sitting around a table watching an animation on a TV associated with Miner Madness.

Did you find the animations before the game helpful?

- - Yes, the rules being animated helped, but they didn’t discuss all the cards evenly
  - Code theory made the troll seem more disgusting.
    - Some asked why the troll was so mean.
  - Often couldn’t piece together that Penelope and Owen were on a field trip
    - “Why are they in cave?”
    - “Why do they have equipment?”
    - “Isn’t it dangerous to go on a field trip to a cave?”
    - The animations were helpful but some of the groups found the gross humor to be over the top, and distracting.
    - Some found the gross out humor to be meant more for kids younger than themselves. Approximately 50/50

A middle school student's hands are shown picking up the Miner Madness box and pointing at the characters depicted on the front.

What do you think about the characters?

- - Troll was too big.
  - Penelope and Owen looked younger to them.
    - Some kids stated that they could see Penelope and Owen fitting in a classroom with them.
  - Troll looked more like a gremlin

Middle schoolers' hands are shown pointing at the game board just as it has been first set up for playing. The game board as well as game cards have been set up on a table.

What do you learn about coding?

- - Good and bad things can happen.
  - Often enjoyed the “If” and “Then” cards