Math educators: What makes a physical learning game worth purchasing for your classroom?

[u/Middle_Tree_8532]

Hi everyone! I'm a Kennesaw State University college student and math educator/tutor who has worked with high-school students in calculus. Through that experience, I've become really interested in how game-based learning can help students practice difficult concepts in a more interactive way.

I've also had the opportunity to test game-based math activities in different classroom settings, and I'm currently exploring whether physical educational games can be both useful for educators and viable as professionally produced classroom resources.

For those who teach or tutor Algebra II, Precalculus, Trigonometry, Calculus, or similar subjects:

1. Do you use physical games or hands-on activities to reinforce difficult math concepts?
2. Have you ever personally purchased an educational game or supplemental resource for your students? If not, does your school or organization typically purchase those resources?
3. What would make a physical educational game worth paying for when free worksheets, printable activities, Quizlet, Kahoot, and other resources already exist?
4. What would make you decide not to purchase one?
5. Would you prefer an individual/small-group game or a classroom set containing multiple copies and educator instructions?
6. What price range would you consider reasonable for an individual educational card game? What about a complete classroom set?

I'm especially interested in honest feedback about purchasing decisions not just whether educational games sound like a good idea. I'm trying to understand what educators actually value and pay for when choosing supplemental math resources.

Thanks for any insight!

[u/CrochetedMushroom]

So in theory, it’s a great idea! In practice, it’s pretty tough.

I struggle to find ways to truly connect the content with a physical game in ways other than: “solve this problem from the lesson about the random topic and if you get it right, move your piece two spaces forward”. At that point, the game board is just another element to make a mess, make noise, lose pieces, or get thrown across the room. Plus, I don’t trust kids not to unintentionally steal pieces at the end of class, fail to put everything back, not break things, etc.

It doesn’t feel very meaningful and it costs a lot of valuable class time for setup, cleanup, explaining rules, mediating random conflicts, pairing up partners, etc. Practices on paper in worksheet form or on an electronic platform like Quizizz are a lot easier for me to manage and actually gauge comprehension with.

In the few times I’ve tried physical games for practicing, I’ve had some students mutually agree to just ignore all of the math problems and just play the game. I also have some students who prefer to just solve all of the problems to get their work done and don’t want to be bothered with the extra steps of playing a frivolous game.

I think for something like this, you really need to know your class, their maturity level, and their work ethic. It could be successful, but I don’t know if it’s really worth it, personally.

[u/Middle_Tree_8532 → u/CrochetedMushroom]

This is really helpful! especially your point about the math needing to be genuinely connected to the gameplay instead of “solve a problem, then move a piece.” That’s actually one of the things I’ve been thinking about with the game I’m developing.
If the math itself were required to play the game…rather than being an extra question layered onto a game. would that change your opinion at all? And if you were ever going to use a physical math game, what would it need to do to make the setup/management time worth it? I was thinking just creating facilitation material to go hand in hand with lesson plans! 🙂

[u/TheSleepingVoid → u/Middle_Tree_8532]

If the math were genuinely required for the game the problem becomes the scope.

I would only consider buying physical games relevant to the curriculum I'm teaching. That means whatever you do is going to end up being limited to a small range of grade levels and only used during a limited period of time.

For example it's conceivable that there could be a good game that forces you to practice, say, finding a common denominator to add fractions - but that's going to be what, 3rd grade?

While older students could definitely stand to practice fractions more, I don't have the time to spend a class period deviating from my curriculum for it.

[u/Capital-Giraffe7820]

Not a physical game and not for a price, but I thought I'd share this since you said you're at Kennesaw State.

https://www.playfulmath.org/activities

Also, this is more about mathematical play than a game.

[u/Middle_Tree_8532 → u/Capital-Giraffe7820]

Thank you for sharing this! I hadn’t come across Playful Mathematics before, but this is really relevant to what I’m exploring, especially the focus on engagement and mathematical play. I’m definitely going to look through their activities and research!

[u/Any_Career_2229]

From what I've seen discussed by educators, the games that get repeat use tend to share a few things: the rules can be explained in under 2 minutes (anything longer and you lose class time to setup), there's a clear "why" a student improves at it (not just repetition for its own sake), and it still works if only half the kids fully understand the underlying concept — the stronger students shouldn't just steamroll every round. Anything that requires the teacher to constantly referee disputes tends to get shelved fast, no matter how good the concept is.

[u/Middle_Tree_8532 → u/Any_Career_2229]

Thank you! The point about stronger students not steamrolling everyone is something I hadn't thought about enough. My game focuses on the unit circle as a foundation for trigonometry, and the goal is for understanding the relationships between angles, radians, coordinates, and trig values to actually help students play rather than just having them answer unrelated questions between turns.

I really like your point about the two-minute rule explanation too. If you were evaluating a classroom game like this, what mechanics have you seen work well for keeping students with different levels of understanding competitive without taking away the educational value?

[u/Optimal_Tomorrow8620]

I agree with previous posters about games taking up too much time and not being meaningful. For me to purchase a game, it would need to be easy to explain, durable, and easily checkable by me to see if students did the math right. It would also be nice to be tailored specifically to several topics through the year so I could explain the game once and then play once per month all year. Closest thing to this I have purchased is matching activities on tpt for about $5 per set that you download and print yourself. (I.e. Match graph to equation to description). Students type answers in to our lms to check their work.

[u/Middle_Tree_8532 → u/Optimal_Tomorrow8620]

That's a really good point about scope. The game I'm developing specifically focuses on the unit circle because it's a foundational concept students continue using throughout trigonometry and into later math courses, rather than a skill they learn once and completely move on from.

I was envisioning it being used for initial reinforcement and then brought back for review as students move into other trig concepts. From a teacher's perspective, would that repeated relevance make a focused physical game more worthwhile, or would you still prefer something that could cover multiple completely different topics throughout the year?

[u/Puzzled-Painter3301]

Oh cool! That's where The RadBrad went.

[u/kittywitties]

Check out the website math=love. She teaches calculus and makes a lot of great hands on puzzles and games to print and prepare for students. The best part is she shares them all for free.