Graphing Game

Lalagos, Thomas           Hyde Park Career Academy
                          947-7180
                           

Objective:

To introduce the graphing of ordered pairs on the cartesian plane.

Materials:

A cartesian graph that goes from -4 to 4 on both axes.  The axes should 
be thick lines with arrows facing in the positive direction.  The 
other lines on the graph should be lighter than the axes.  Horizontal 
lines should be a different color than the vertical lines, but it is 
not necessary.  Do not label anything.  No X-axis, no Y-axis, no 
numbers on the axes. 

Strategy:

Divide the class in teams (if possible no more than 4 teams with no 
more than 7 students per team).  Assuming that you have 4 teams, take 4 
sheets of paper write the group symbol assigned to each team on top of 
their paper and ask them to list the names of their team on that 
paper.  You may want to use X, O, /\, #, for the four different 
symbols.  After the students have written their names on their team 
paper, collect the papers, write the 4 symbols on the board and list 
the members of each team under their symbol.  Leave enough space 
between the team columns on the board so that you can insert checks 
to keep track of who is up next when you play the game.  Directions to
students: The object of this game is to get four of your symbols in a 
row, (next to each other) horizontally, vertically, or diagonally.  At 
the same time you may wish to prevent the other teams from getting 
four of their symbols in a row.  All teams start off with 20 points. 
When a team gets four in a row, 4 points are added to its score, but 
the other three teams get one point subtracted from their score.  To 
get your symbol on the graph choose a pair of numbers from the set 
that is on the board {-4,-3,-2,-1, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, }. You may use any 
pair of numbers from this set including using the same number twice. 
Once I call on you and you give me a pair of numbers, you must watch 
how I move on the graph.  I will not explain.   Once you give me both 
numbers of the pair you cannot change your mind, but it's O.K. to 
change your mind after saying the first number.  If the point described 
by the pair of numbers that you give me is already occupied, you lose 
your turn.  Remember, the pair of numbers that you give me are 
directions on how to move and I will follow those directions.  Team 
members may help each other, but only the person that I call on can 
give me the pair of numbers.  You cannot tell another team what to do. 
Teams and/or individuals will have points taken off if they don't play 
by the rules.  Further directions to the teacher: Put a check on the 
board after the student's name once they have taken their turn.  Since 
the number of students on each team will not always be the same, it 
will help you keep track of who is next on that team when it is that 
team's turn to play again.  Two possible ways to end the game: 
 A) Once a team has four symbols in a row erase everything and start 
    over.                       
 B) Once a team has 4 symbols in a row erase only those four symbols
    and continue playing the game.
Either way the game will end when the bell rings.
There are several variations of this game and you may wish to develop 
your own.