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Following the information session organised through NACE, I introduced my class to the game last Friday (17 girls playing from remote locations). They were very excited to be part of this and enjoyed playing the game. We played it in a similar way to how my group played it in the break-out session - me vs my class! Of course, I could hear all their suggestions but I was delighted to hear the reasoning skills and discussions taking place. When someone didn't understand the rules, the girls who did dominated the discussions showing their understanding - all good for developing mathematical mastery.
They loved that this was a very tactical game where having a strategy is important however they wondered if it would be possible to have a game option where you can only use your own players, not each others, and maybe have players colour coded as you would in a real football match?
They quickly decided that edge coordinates (G9 or A1) were a wasted position as you could only access them horizontally.
They felt the game would work best in pairs or small teams as they saw multiple benefits of sharing their tactics and strategy with someone else (again, allowing reasoning skills).
They wondered if it would be beneficial to limit the number of players out on the board at any one time (or restricting the number of players per session before the ball has been kicked)?
They wondered if there could be a mode where there was a time limit and also wondered if after a goal had been scored, if the new game could be reset with players in the existing position?
I am not sure if this is the kind of information you wanted but I wanted to share our feedback and discussion.
Ultimately, we only managed to play the game through once in our hour session but I will definitely revisit it again, especially once we are back in the classroom (they are not allowed to play remotely in a lesson format except through the Teams hub with me) but I found the opportunity for discussion and reasoning skills really positive - it was also an Nrich game where there really was a level playing field once the girls understood the rules - ie it wasn't based on an ability to use long multiplication or fractions knowledge - which I think is a positive.
Finally, well done for creating a football game which appealed to 20 girls!
Thanks, Emma Jones