Friday, August 2, 2013

Pythagorean Theorem Board Game

This fun board game is a great way to to have student actively practice using the Pythagorean Theorem.


The rules are printed right on to the game board so each group of student always have the rules in case they need to reference them throughout the game.  I changed the rules a bit from the picture above.  In the PDF version below the procedure changes slightly when you go around the board the second time.  The first time around students practice solving the Pythagorean Theorem for the hypotenuse, while the second time around they are practicing solving for a leg. 

When I did this with my students, I had them work in groups of three.  We played this for the last 35 minutes of class.  I had one group finish right away and I just had them play again, but for the rest of the groups it seemed to be the perfect amount of time.  [If you use this as a review or your students have a good grasp of the PT, then I would have them go around the board again.  Or maybe think of an extra twist of your own?]

Next time:  Since I changed the rules a little, there isn't a lot that I plan on changing for next time I use this.  There are a few comments I will make; 1) the purple spaces are part of the board.  For some reason, I had a lot of students who thought they weren't playable spaces.  2) the pink triangles on the board are just decoration, they don't mean anything. These confused a lot of students at first, but the board just seemed too plain without them. Another change I made in the direction that I will implement next time is how students show their work.  Last time I had them use a worksheet, but it didn't really work and I think just having them do something like the below picture will work just fine.


Question Cards: I really like the questions cards because they allow students to see how problems might be presented in a stressful situation (Test/Quiz). I printed out an extra copy of the sheet that has all the questions cards on it and wrote the answers on them but did not cut it up.  I was walking around the class room with it just in case I needed to help my students.  But I only told them if they were correct or not as a last resort.  I had the other player in the group also solve the question card to make sure the player who drew the card got it correct.  Most students were okay with also doing it so they could make sure the player who drew the card actually got to roll again.  

What you need to use this in your classroom:
• Two Dice for each group of students
• PDF Pythagorean Board Game
  I included a blank page of squares so that you can make your own questions cards if you want.

Make sure to leave a comment if you use this in your classroom.  I would love to hear your thoughts and results!


13 comments:

  1. I would really appreciate it if you could supply the answers for the 20 problems. I really need them badly.
    -thanks

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  3. Thank you so much for posting this so we can download it - I can't wait to use it in my classroom!

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  4. Thank you so much for making this game available. It was super easy to prepare materials and it worked wonderfully for my 8th grade math academy classes. While some of the word problems were too much for them and bogged them down, I just told them to take those problems out and we will use them in the classroom for guided practice. Using the dice numbers as sides of the triangle made it just challenging enough for some to stretch them. These are students that have struggled with math since Kindergarten and are low on their multiplication facts and adding/subtracting. Some I allowed to use a calculator or it was just too challenging. Thank you again for making this available. Its a great activity.

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  5. Nice job. Love the questions, using this with my middle school kids and I am letting them use a calculator. Killing lot's of birds with one game. Thanks.

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  6. I Mrs B.

    I'm a teacher in Québec city and I work for the association québecoise of mathematical game (AQJM). Our association aims at showing that the mathematics can be playful. We have a weebsite or we we propose mathematical magic trick, activity and more. I saw on Pinterest your Pythagorean Theorem Board Game and I'd like propose your activity on my weeb site www.semainedesmaths.ulaval.ca. for the student. I will change some questions and add rules, but the game remains appreciably the same. Can I use your project? I am going to register a reference toward you. Anything on my weebsite is free for anybody.

    * sorry for my bad english, french is my fisrt language

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    1. I created this game in 1988. See the mathematics teacher December 1995 issue for the original idea. Jon (John) Stasiuk feel free to contact me at jstasiuk@kvcc.edu

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  7. This game looks great to use in class! Is it still available somewhere?

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