Math Gamsology

Geometry

Algebra

Measurement

Statistics

What is GAMSology?  A board game developed by a math teacher to help practice math facts for elementary, middle and high school students.

Quite simply, players draw a card and show it to the person on their left.  The player on the left solves the math equation on the card.  If correct (as determined by the person who drew the card and can see the answer), the player moves a given number of spaces on the game board.

2-4 people can play and each game takes about 10-20 minutes to play.

What I like best is that various skill cards can be purchased to go along with the game board.  In other words, you can purchase the addition/subtraction card set when your children are in elementary school, add the multiplication/division set as they get older, then buy the proportion set in middle school, and add the algebra set for high school.

In fact, if you have children working on different levels, you could actually play the game with more than one set in the same game.  Simply make sure each child gets equation cards appropriate to his or her level and the playing field is more evenly  matched!

It’s highly unusual to find games that practice higher level math skills like algebra, making this a huge positive of the game!  My 9th grader and I had a blast trying to beat each other to the end with the algebra set.  She won every time.  Hmmm.

Negatives?  Well, just a couple.  There are a few misspellings on the cards  – for example, “quoien” instead of “quotient”.  Also, our game board did not lay flat.  Neither of these issues made a difference in our game play, but they are worth mentioning.

There are other ways to use the game cards, too.