L - A Mathematical Adventures
<< You can buy L - A Mathemagical Adventure here
I first came across L in a workshop at the Combined Mathematics Conference at Keele University where it was described as a game that links various mathematical problems by means of the exploration of a palace in which Runia is imprisoned by Drogo robots. None of the many problems involves advanced mathematical content, but considerable ingenuity is required to rescue Runia. This description was more than enough to get me interested. Allow me to ‘fast forward’ at this stage - I bought the program after the session and played for many hours sitting in the conference workshop until late in the evenings.
This is how it works - the game is text-based meaning that there are hardly any graphics at all. The player simply gets all the instructions as text on the screen and uses that information to ‘walk’ through the palace where Runia is held captive solving problems at various stages. I have heard some people say that they were disappointed that the game is like its original version from the eighties but I think it doesn’t matter at all. On the contrary I found myself putting pen to paper almost immediately and creating a map of all the rooms, corridors, staircases, gardens and rivers that I came across imagining how it all looked. The beginning of the game is thus straightforward - one explores the palace room by room picking up objects like a golden cube (what for I haven’t yet found out...), spectacles and many others. In one of the rooms there is a telephone that clearly has to be used but which number to dial? In another a pig has a bit of paper attached to its collar but how to catch the animal in order to read it? What do you do if you suddenly find yourself in a locked room with only some numbers carved into the wall?
Later in the game I thought I had been in all the rooms and was wandering around and didn’t quite know what to do next and this continued for a rather long time. Maybe this is a disadvantage of the game but maybe it’s one of its (if not the main) strength? What do real mathematicians do when they are ‘wondering around’ raking their brain what to do next, which ‘clue’ they haven’t seen, which detail they have missed?
I think the game has a lot to offer to pupils and to adults alike. One simply gets hooked and wants to know what comes next (when was the last time this happened in your classroom - honest?). It is ideal for working in groups, for problem solving, trying out different things, daring, making decisions, thinking outside the box, being organised and intuitive, recording solutions AND getting stuck. As I said earlier I got stuck several times and frustrated! But then I went to find someone to talk to and to explain ‘my problem’ and at one point there were several people pointing to the screen all talking at the same time - wonderful!
I haven’t rescued Runia yet (does this matter?) but I am determined to find some time to introduce my students to L. I am curious how long it will take them to realise that drawing a map might be a good idea. How will they cope with their frustration when they get stuck, have they got enough perseverance and stamina to go all the way, can they take risks, can they solve some or even all the problems? Do they have to get to the end to make it a meaningful (and dare I say assessable) activity?
I will let you know sometime - so watch this space...
Thomas Krueger • Teacher of Mathematics, Bradfield College
<< You can buy L - A Mathemagical Adventure here
L - A Mathematical Adventure
ATM
www.atm.org.uk
£25 or £18.75 for ATM members
