Maryland Public Television

Maryland Public Television (MPT), along with partners at Johns Hopkins University and MIT, are creating a role-playing adventure game called “Labyrinth” to be used by middle school mathematics learners as part of a regular school curriculum. Initially, the game will be accessed via MPT’s Thinkport, an internet-based resource for teachers, but eventually it will be translated to run on a mobile device such as the Nintendo DS as well. In the game, players become lost in a secret world of monsters and other strange creatures. To work their way out, they must solve increasingly difficult mathematical puzzles, each of which they encounter in several iterations to help them build upon their prior experience and to deepen their knowledge. The puzzles emphasize skills and concepts drawn from the study of ratio and proportion and other mathematical concepts, but they are encountered as an integrated part of the game narrative, and not explicitly as mathematical challenges.

Targeted Teachers: : Middle school math teachers focusing on pre-algebra content