Dan and Desmos present: Penny Circle!

Big THANK YOU to Dan Meyer and Team Desmos for their latest creation.  If you haven't seen it, here it is: Penny Circle.

Dan and Eli Luberoff shared what they had created, invited math teachers (and others) to play with it and, here's my favorite part, to make suggestions of other ideas which could be developed.

This is incredible, a tipping point on some level.  Up until now most online curriculum has been created, sometimes without teachers being involved in the material, and offered up to teachers looking for resources.  The idea that we might want/need/expect a hand in creating materials for our own classes would have been a nigh impossibility just a few years ago (given the large numbers of teachers and the limited number of curriculum publishers)  The discussion in education has focused for a while now on engaging students, well I want to be engaged too!!

Ok, maybe its because I'm in such a sequences mood, but I have an idea for a game/activity relating to this topic.  Remember the game Galaga?  (if not, play it).  In this game, an armada of invading ships was coming and it was your job to defend the planet.  Imagine if the ships were being released from a number strip and it was your job to predict where the next ship would be released from.  As I imagine it, ships would continue to generate (and you couldn't attack the invaders) until you managed to destroy a spawning ship from the next number in the sequence.  Different modes with progressively harder to predict sequences could be made and points could be scored (what's a space shooter game without points and bragging rights?)

Imagine walking through the lunch room and seeing kids trying over and over to beat their friend's high score, learning and practicing sequences all the while.

Finally something in the lunch room besides the chicken surprise to bring a tear to my eye.

It could happen....