Lure of the Labyrinth
Description
Lure of the Labyrinth is a product of the Learning Games to Go (LG2G) project, funded by a Star Schools grant from the U.S. Department of Education, spearheaded by Maryland Public Television (MPT).
LG2G concentrates on creating essential resources for pre-algebra students and the teachers and families working with them, as well as aggregating other manipulatives, web sites, and teacher tools that can help students think like mathematicians.
The development of Lure of the Labyrinth involved a group of educational and game experts working in concert:
- The Education Arcade at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) was responsible for game design, under the leadership of Project Manager Scot Osterweil.
- The multimedia studio and educational publisher FableVision was responsible for executing the game design, including story line development, programming, art work, and narrative voice work.
- The research firm ORC-Macro was responsible for providing formative and summative evaluation that helped shape the development of the game.
MPT also worked with several Maryland school districts (Allegany, Dorchester, Caroline, and Baltimore County Public Schools, as well as the Archdiocese of Baltimore) and numerous education experts to assure that the game was as useful as possible to students throughout the country. These experts included the people who served as our Advisory Panel and Advance Team teachers from the partner school districts.
Pricing
| Plan | Price | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Lure of the Labyrinth | Free | Play online from any browser. |
Reviews
Lure of the Labyrinth is a great for middle school math. It is a game that requires students to apply proportions, algebra, geometry, and other math skills to problem solve. The game is also interactive with an engaging story told in a comic book style. Students also can be in teams and they can provide help to each other. The site also has lesson plans for teachers to use in conjunction with the game or you can allow students to explore and figure out the puzzles of the game on their own. My students were frustrated initially by the lack of direction, but quickly got invested as they started solving puzzles. I play it myself as well!
I used Lure of the Labyrinth in a short-term enrichment class last year as part of my school's RtI program. The students were at varied levels in terms of mathematic ability and gaming experience. 95% of the students really enjoyed it, though some needed more guidance than others. It really would be more beneficial as an ongoing activity so that more students would get farther in the game as even my best mathematicians were barely able to scratch the surface in the time that we had. On the whole, it is a fun, very useful tool that has a multitude of applications!