Can we really get smarter when we game? (Okay, that’s a ridiculous question).
So how do we game? (Maybe that’s not a ridiculous question).
Look at your dice. Even if you are a serious gamer, the dice you probably have in your home are surprisingly inefficient at teaching “math fact fluency” (flash recognition of math sums, differences, and products), which in turn might have broader implications on the people who play with them (watch our Kickstarter video or do a quick internet search on “is math fact fluency important”).
The deal with dice: Dice have been around for centuries. We love them because they are fun, and they were some of the first devices that allowed people to incorporate random outcomes into their gaming lives. They have not evolved much, however, when you think about how we use them today. When you roll the your common set of six-sided dice, over 55% of those dice rolls produce a result that only requires a player to add the number 1 or 2 to another number (which in turn is a number that is 6 or lower).
PlaySmart Dice: Our dice remove easy-to-learn number combinations and emphasize harder math operations, helping players develop math fluency while they play.
The Dice: The PlaySmart Dice set includes two “Mean 11” dice, twelve-sided dice with numbers 3 through 8 occurring twice, as well as two “Mean 13” dice with the numbers 4 through 9 occurring twice. The dice are big – 25mm – and fun to roll. Watch our Kickstarter gaming videos to get an idea of how they can be used in new and existing game play.
These dice also teach a natural sense of probability distribution and can be adapted to more advanced games involving multiplication combinations that are usually the hardest to learn as our child gamers grow. Use PlaySmart Dice in the original base games we have developed, existing board games and RPGs, and help introduce them into your local schools with games that are great in classroom settings. Compared to flash cards, dice games introduce memorable elements of tactile play, encouraging recall and math fact fluency.
Check out the Kickstarter and pledge to support this great campaign!
[Note: this is a sponsored post, but I’ve personally backed this campaign because it’s cool and educational!]
