After School Math Games Teacher/Facilitator Page After School Math Games is a web site we have created with twelve online math activities (we call them "games") for use in a middle school/junior high (6-8) after-school program. All games are web based and run right in the browser. Each activity takes 15 minutes or less to complete. We first implemented this program in Fall 2003. The games and site have now been updated (in Fall 2005). This is set up as a six day program, in which students do two math games each day. From experience, we recommend using these after school math games one day per week (for 30 minutes). These activities ("games") may also be used in the regular classroom.

Goals of the Program

After School Math Games (ASMG) program has two primary goals. Our desire is create:

1. Useable online math activities (math games) for an after-school program (or regular classroom) which are:
   1. Mathematically sound,
   2. Enjoyable and interesting to the students,
   3. Beneficial to the students (that is, enhance their mathematical understanding),
   4. Easy to implement. That is, the activities should:
      • require little or no advance instruction to do the activity,
      • be something students can do on their own,
      • require only minimal adult supervision.
2. Useable online math activities that are transferable. That is, we want these online activities to be in a form that other after-school programs or other classroom teachers can use. In order to make the activities transferable, we wanted to set up a program which:
   1. Is easy for a facilitator to implement. The web site has all the necessary information. With a relatively low amount of preparation, this program can be implemented by an "educated" adult, who need not be a mathematics expert.
   2. Has no cost for technology. (No software is needed. Utilizes existing computer labs.)
   3. Has low cost incentives (we feel that students need an, albeit small, incentive to participate in ASMG).

Short List of the Math Games by Day (for a full list, go to Day 6, which lists all the activities)

Day 1

Activity 1 ~ HIDDEN PICTURE - Easy warm up: Practice the basic facts of addition, subtraction, and multiplication. Three puzzles. For example, Addition. Note: This games is from the aplusmath.com web site and they state "Java games require Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.x or Netscape 4.5 or greater. Netscape 4.04 and previous versions will NOT work. If the java games do not work, try downloading the latest java from www.java.com."

Activity 2 ~ MISSION MAGNETITE - Click on equivalent percents, fractions, and pictures. Click here to play.

Extension Activity ~CYBERCHASE SQUARES. Students find a counter-example (an example that shows that the given statement is not true). Click here to play.

Day 2

Activity 1 ~ WHERE IS DIGIT - You will find the location of "Digit" the bird using the power of circles. Click here to play.

Activity 2 ~ GOLF - Distance of the golf shot depends on the angle. Functional relationship. Students build a table. You need a recording sheet for this. Click here to play golf.

Extension Activity ~ FLIPPING PANCAKES: Problem solving. Flipping Pancakes.

Day 3

Activity 1 ~ MAKE A MATCH FRACTION GAME - Match models (pictures) and fractions. Click here to play.

Activity 2 ~ AIRLINES BUILDER GAME - Area and perimeter. With a fixed perimeter, students build shapes. Cyberchase Airlines Builder Game - Drag (and sometime rotate) pieces to make a spaceship. A spaceship must be an enclosed shape. Record your spaceships on the activity sheet.

Day 4

Activity 1 ~ FIND GRAMPY: Mixed numbers. Fraction sense. Find Grampy.

Activity 2 ~ POINT OF VIEW GAME - 3D visualization. Draw the side views for each of four people. Cyberchase Point of View Game. (There are 10 levels, and it does get challenging!!)

Day 5

Activity 1 ~ SLEUTHS ON THE LOOSE - Proportional reasoning. You do need to record your answers on the recording sheet. Click here, then click PLAY GAME!

Activity 2 ~ BROKEN CALCULATOR: Problem solving. The dimmed buttons on the calculator are broken (they don't work!). Your goal is to use the buttons that do work to compute the numbers from 1 through 15. Broken calculator

Extension Activity ~ HEX-7 Game. See directions and hints online. Click here to play.

Day 6

Activity 1 ~ JIGSAW PUZZLE - You will put together the jigsaw puzzle, but you might have to RESIZE the pieces. Click here, then click PLAY!

Activity 2 ~ 13 WAYS TO A HALF - Take an empty square and fill half of it -- but do it 13 different ways!! If two patterns can be rotated or flipped to become the same, then they are actually the same. Click here to play.

Facilitator Suggestions: Suggestions for Implementing These Games

Suggestions for implementing these games in your after-school program (or in your mathematics classroom). (Word document)
Sticker Tents - This is a Word document. Print out (make copies) on card stock. Cut in half. Then fold in half (to make a tent). Each student writes their name on their sticker tent and puts it on their computer monitor. As they complete the games they get stickers.

Associated Research on this Program

1. In the Fall 2003 semester the ASMG program was created and tested at a midwestern junior high school. The program was very successful and well-received by students and administrators. This research project was done by Jim Olsen (mathematics faculty member) & Jessica Denna (undergraduate mathematics education major) at Western Illinois University. Click here for our PowerPoint presentation describing this undergraduate research project and the results from 2003.
2. In the Fall of 2005 the ASMG program was redesigned and the "suggestions for implementing ASMG" were updated by Melissa Patterson (undergraduate mathematics education major). The program was implemented in five Extended Day programs in Peoria, IL. In the Spring of 2006 Olsen and Patterson surveyed the Extended Day teachers as to the effectiveness and ease of implementation of ASMG. Feedback was very favorable. Olsen, Patterson, and Foster (formerly Denna) published the results in the summer 2007 issue (vol. 58 no. 1) of The Illinois Mathematics Teacher, the official journal of the Illinois Council of Teachers of Mathematics. The article title is "After School Math Games."

Press Release

"Western Provides After School Math Games to Peoria Students," March 29, 2006. This is also linked off the IBHE News from Colleges and Universities site.

Survey Form for After School Math Games

We request that facilitator/teachers who have used After School Math Games fill out a short survey by following this link.