Escape rooms are "live-action team-based games where players discover clues, solve puzzles, and accomplish tasks in one or more rooms in order to accomplish a specific goal (usually escaping from the room) in a limited amount of time." Escape Rooms are one type of Escape Game, which are narrative-based challenges that use puzzles, tasks,…

Values of games as teaching strategies are outlined. In the simulation described in this paper students assume certain roles, analyze information, and make decisions. This is an example of how gaming might be used in a problem solving situation in a high school or college classroom. (SM)

This paper describes in detail the paper-and-pencil POE (Pelham Odd 'R Even) game, in which units of space are the allocated resources. The game is designed to provide an introduction to the rule structure common to the games of EQUATIONS, WFF 'N PROOF, and ON-SENTS & NON-SENTS. Techniques of playing POE, including goals, solutions, moves, scoring…

In February and May 1973, experimental forms of the mathematics game EQUATIONS were used in two seventh-grade classes which had been participating twice a week in EQUATIONS tournaments since the previous September. The purpose of the experimental games was to gain information as to the kinds of mathematical ideas players choose to concern…

This paper directs attention to the use of the EQUATIONS game as a research tool to study certain kinds of mathematical behavior, for example, the kinds of mathematical problems which players prefer to consider and to force their opponents to consider. Mathematical equations that meet certain game rule constraints constitute a problem space. A…

Two pilot studies investigated the effects of using Instructional Math Play (IMP) Kits, pamphlets with which individuals may play the mathematical game EQUATIONS against a computer program. Twenty-nine junior high students in a high-ability mathematics class completed varying numbers of the kits in five 48-minute sessions during a two-week period;…

A survey was conducted with 104 seventh-grade students in four classrooms participating in EQUATIONS tournaments. The tournaments had been taking place on a weekly-basis for several weeks. The study compares four basic pedagogical assumptions behind the tournament structure with student opinion of the tournaments. Student responses to the survey…

This state-of-the-art paper, first in a series, provides teachers and other educational decision makers with analytical and critical information about the use of simulation/games in social studies classrooms in order to promote and improve the use of this innovative educational technique. Discussed are non-computer, commercially available…

This study focuses on the affective dimension of learning as influenced by a learning environment organized around instructional gaming. Experimental and control classes of seventh- and eighth-grade students taught by the same teachers for both semesters participated in the 1972-73 study. The experimental learning environment contained three…