If you have not yet heard of Robot Turtles, it is a board game built around the fundamentals of computer programming by Dan Shapiro, formerly of Google and Microsoft, launched on Kickstarter last year. The response was amazing enough to convince the company Think Fun to help Dan deliver the game to a wider audience. Think Fun was founded in 1985 by Bill Ritchie and Andrea Barthello. They have created popular and thoughtful games like Math Dice and Rush Hour. Bill describes his company as one that makes things that sit between the categories of game and puzzle, tracing his inspiration back to puzzles designed by Bill Keister, his father's co worker and close friend at Bell Labs.
As a K-5 technology integration specialist, I often find myself talking with teachers about how the technology newly available to teachers can upgrade our instructional models and open new doors of understanding to students. My recent conversation with Bill Ritchie, challenged some of my notions and helped me see how we can use analog tools, like physical puzzles and board games, to support the development of computational thinking and problem solving.
How does Robot Turtles fit into the family of games at Thinkfun? “Coding is a thinking skill and that is our mission” says Ritchie, "Teaching coding teaches executive function skills. The child is the responsible party, making decisions. The parent or adult is creating a safe space to explore in a low risk situation" Robot Turtles is low risk because every player is on their own quest, and the on-board challenges can be modified to the needs of the players. Like a video game, Robot Turtles gets more complex to match the player's developing skills.
While Ritchie values coding as a thinking skill, he also sees the interaction between people over a game as very important. In the case of Robot Turtles there is an active role for an adult to act as the computer, executing the programs written by the players Ritchie wants parents and kids to play together.
I asked Ritchie to think with me about what role Robot Turtles could play in a classroom. The basic action of the game is you have to move your turtle to the goal. As you set up the game you always start from a blank board. There is even a way to pre-design the layout of the board. Yes, even board games some with extra levels now,and they are online. Adventure Quests invite adults to work with kids to design their own levels and possibly lessons.
When we started talking about content integration we talked about the power of a blank game board. What if an industrious teacher created a game board in the same dimensions as the original, but on laminated poster board? Students could design a board with solutions to math problems, the letters of their name, of the steps in tying their shoes. On a laminated surface you could add information quickly with dry erase markers. Bill wants players to extend their play of the game by writing narratives of adventure about where the turtles are going and the challenges they will face. As we talked, I could see that the game space is a medium we can use to engage so much of the content of primary school. Depending on what we put on the board and the choices we ask the students to make we can be supporting literacy, science or math. In addition to executive function skills, we are also building social and problem solving skills
I see a Robot Turtles learning center coming soon to a class near me, but it will have to be adult lead to get the most out of the experience.
Do you have board games where you could used the mechanics of the game on a modified board to support the lessons in your class? Here are a few teacher maker questions to get you started.
The power of a blank game board: Teacher Maker Key Questions:
- Do you know the dimensions of the original board and squares?
- Do you have access to a laminator?
- What could your students do with a dry erase game surface?
Do you have a great idea for remixing Monopoly to teach statistics or how Candy Land can support Common Core? Share it with us here.
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