Educational Card Design

Advantages, Limitations, Examples, & Options

Strengths of Card Games

Compact Playable anywhere Mastered quickly Played quickly Good for reinforcing facts,

classification, simple relationships

Limitations of Card Games

Can’t be used for higher level objectives

If not designed carefully, could be played for fun without learning

Producing more than one deck takes careful planning (use of database or page layout program) and tedious assembly

Example: Krill

Used to teach ocean food chains

Simple relationships: what it eats, and what eats it

The Algebra Game Rummy-like game

in which combinations of equations and their graphs are matched and discarded.

http://www.mathstudio.com/product.htm

Mental Disorder

Educational satire of the mental health profession.

Players “diagnose” each other.

http://www.mentaldisorder.com/

Problems & Programmers

http://www.ics.uci.edu/~andre/research/publications.html#ICSE2003-2

Compost Gin

http://www.stanslaughter.com/compost/cpstgin.html

Planetaire

Rummy-like game that can also be played like solitaire.

http://www.homestargames.com/product.htm

Nanofictionary

Players combine and recombine Settings, Characters, Problems and Resolutions to create the best story they can, while other players mix things up with wacky Action cards.

http://www.wunderland.com/LooneyLabs/Nanofictionary/Index.html

Example: Triangle

Object: to put down triads of cards that represent sides and angles of triangles

Native American Rummy

Each card represents an historically important Native American.

Categories of Card Games

Bridge/Whist Poker/Rummy Happy Families/Snap Patience Solitaire

Bridge/Whist

Emphasis on winning tricks Suits have relative strengths Sometimes involves pairs as partners Sometimes involves bidding

It’s not easy to create educational games in this format!

Poker/Rummy

Emphasis on building a pattern of cards and discarding them

Patterns can be based on suits or ranks or both (e.g., three of a kind, flush, straight)

Applicable to wide range of content involving categories and ranking within categories

Happy Families/Snap

Mostly children’s games Simple relationships (e.g.

greater than) Sometimes involves element of

speed

Typical educational use: drilling simple relationships

Patience/Solitaire

Players start with a pattern of cards and work to an end state with a different pattern

Could be used educationally to represent complex interrelationships among elements

Melding Content & Game Structures

Ranks Differences in power, size, etc.

Suits Categories

Trump More potent category

Card to avoid Undesirable element

Wild card Outlier

Groupings(e.g. face cards)

Natural groupings(e.g., noble gases)

Educational Card Design

Advantages, Limitations, Examples, & Options