GameMath! Embedding Secondary Mathematics into a Game-making Curriculum

This paper reports on our experiences designing GameMath!, a mathematics learning track for a new game making curriculum called Pedagogical Games. The curriculum is the result of an National Science Foundation grant to explore novel ways to teach standards-based content and 21 century skill to underperforming high school students in Los Angeles. The project’s goals are to address retention, career education and secondary mathematics learning. Game-making is being used to engage students and to provide a grounding context for the mathematics. The effort has exposed the challenge of teaching math across the curriculum and led to the development of new strategies to embed mathematics in authentic contexts. The curriculum is being developed and implemented for the first time during the 2011-12 school year. Fifty ninth-grade underrepresented minority students from east LA are participating. This paper summarizes our current strategies and lessons learned.