Middle School Math Activities: Using Grow Cube Game in Probability and Statistics Study

The internet is full of games, both involved and simple, to pass time, and many are perfect as a springboard into a middle school math lesson or activity. Grow Cube is an interesting game, not too time consuming, yet intriguing enough that I believe it would make a great source of a middle school math learning activity. I haven't solved the game yet, myself, but in approaching the game myself, I'm looking at some basic considerations that lead me directly toward topics that are relevant to middle school math curriculum.

If you are a math teacher, or home educator, for that matter, take a little time to familiarize yourself with the game, which is available at many places online; a simple search will get you there easily enough. The Grow Cube game has a 13x13x13 cube, and 10 items on the borders, which are clicked, and which then become a part of the scene. Each subsequent piece causes further activity on the cube, and when a piece causes the scene to "level up", pieces grow, people construct, things happen.

Some pieces are dependent upon others, and will not level up until certain other objects are placed. Some items, incorrectly selected, are wasted. Some items level up, but an incorrect placement of a subsequent item may take that original piece back to level 0 (the flame, for example). As the teacher, you do not need to know how to solve the puzzle.  You need to know how to challenge your students to think through the problem.

For example, the ten different elements which need to be placed, lead to the opportunity to challenge your students with the question, "How many different ways can the items be selected?"  10 choices for the first item, times 9 choices for the next, times 8 choices, and so on.  As the students work through the multiplication, they will find that it's a large number.  This gives you, as teacher, the chance to discuss factorial, how to compute number of combinations, the difficulty of trying all combinations...great points of discussion as a class, or within groups. 

Because this is a computer game, you will want students to spend time playing the game. If you have the capability of doing this as a class, you can call on students to make a selection, and watch as each subsequent selection happens. Ask for and list observations. For example, if the ball is clicked before the tube, it's wasted. The ball must come after the tube. If the person is clicked, and the water is not, the person doesn't level up. Should the water come before or after the person.

Walk through several games with your class, and if there is enough access to computers, allow each group to continue. If computer access is limited, then there are alternative approaches. If there is a computer center in the school, arrange time for each group to work over the course of a week. Assign the activity to students for home study. If computers are just not easily accessible through the school, or in out of school time, for your students, continue this as a whole class activity, with display in the front of the classroom.

Use your intuition, your understanding, your creativity, and adapt as you see fit to meet the socio-economic challenges that may face your students in terms of computer access.  Meanwhile, challenge students to think through the cause and effect situations in this simple game. 

 Your students, given the chance outside of class, will probably look for, and find, a solution to the game, rather than thinking through and solving on their own.  Try to accomplish what you can in the classroom before they get the chance to Google it!  If they do track down solutions, capitalize on this, as you can challenge them to invent their own game, with less elements, or to find a different game (there are other grow games, but there is a multitude of simple games to consider besides the grow games) to analyze.  As an educator, challenging a student to make use of information in a different scenario involves those higher level thinking skills we value and need in our society.  Use what they enjoy, and turn it into learning opportunities.