DiscoveryTrailTM

NOTES ON THE GAME

Learning factual information is hard work.  This game is designed to make that work fun.  The questions asked are multiple choice, substitution, and transformation exercises, but the game element makes this work entertaining; such drill exercises often bore students, but here they are varied, prompted by the falloff the dice and the luck of the draw, all part of the game.

Games do more than make necessary drills enjoyable.  On a deeper level, they foster a sense of shared learning, a willingness to risk and experiment, a zest for adventure, for taking on the next challenge, and most importantly the habit of play.  It is in play that we humans (and other animals, too) learn most efficiently.  When we feel free to play with information, to explore it and have fun with it, we can master it and be creative with it.

In working with Discovery Trail, encourage your students to relax, to laugh and enjoy one another.  Encourage sharing rather than competitiveness -- it isn’t important who finishes first, everyone who finishes is a winner, and after the players win they stay in the game asking questions. Help the players to see that "the winner" is determined by luck as much as by right answers.  And finally, encourage players to feel free to discuss anything and everything that interests them in the questions or the answers. An open, inquiring mind is a retentive mind.

Discovery Trail should be a learner-directed, learner-centered activity helping every player develop good learning skills.

Discovery Trail comes with several sets of game cards, and others are available. However, teachers can easily develop their own, designed to help their students master any factual information they need to learn from anatomy to zoology, from American English to Zanzibari Swahili. Students may benefit most from making up their own sets of game cards.

HOW TO PLAY THE GAME

The Board
The board consists of a track made up of colored squares.  Each color represents one of the four question categories.  For each category, there is a separate pile of colored cards placed on the open rectangle of the same color on the board.

The Cards
The four card categories are CHOICE (blue), CHALLENGE (yellow), CHANGE (red), and CHANCE (green).  Each card category has a different type of question.  CHOICE cards have multiple choice questions.  CHALLENGE cards ask the player to correct a problem sentence or to do some other challenging task.  CHANGE cards give a sentence some hint or instruction on how to change it -- a transformation exercise.  Finally, each CHANCE card has a reward or penalty for the player who draws it.  The game can be made longer and more varied by adding two or three card sets together, say grammar and world facts.

The Markers
Any small objects that can be told apart can be used for markers, which is good because they get lost.  Coins or stamps (which can be laminated) make interesting markers.  Beans or small stones of various colors and shapes work well, too.

The Players
Two can play, but three to six is the ideal number.  Larger groups can play, too, but it may help to divide them into pairs or small teams.

The Rules
1. Each player (or team of two or three) chooses a marker and begins at the square with the hole shaped like an arrow.  Players roll the die, and the one with the highest number goes first.

2. The first player rolls the die and then counts out the number of squares shown to find his or her new position.  The player points to this new square, and then the person on his or her right draws the top card from the pile of the same color as that square and reads the question on the card aloud.  The answer is given in a box below the question.

3. The player must answer the question correctly in order to move his or her marker forward to the new square.  The person who reads the question judges if the answer is correct. Correct answers other than those shown on the card are acceptable.  If the answer is incorrect, the player's marker remains on the square where it was when the die was cast.

4. After each turn, the questions and answers are discussed or explained so that all the players understand them.

5. When each player has finished, the player to his right plays.  The player who lands on the square with the hole in the shape of an X and then answers the question correctly wins.  If a player overshoots the X square, he or she must go around the track again.

6. Play may continue among the remaining players after other players have won.  The winners continue to participate by reading the question cards.

7. Manners are important on the Trail.  They help players work as a team and make discussion and learning easier.  Politeness makes the competition of the game more fun.  Readers might start, "Here is your card. Please listen carefully."  After the question is answered, they say something positive like, "Good. That's it!" or "No. I'm sorry. Not quite. Does anyone else have the answer?" or 'The answer is . . . ."