Fantasy Sports Math League

An Innovative Gaming Approach to Increase Middle School Math Skills

A digital game-based platform that uses the fun of fantasy football to help middle schoolers practice algebra and data analytics.

A Phase 1A and Phase 2 Department of Education IES SBIR project

Key Features

Real-time sports data

Instant feedback for students

Scaffolded support

Stealth Assessment

Differentiated Learning

Role
Co-Investigator

Project Manager

Grants co-author

Goal:

A supplemental interactive digital game for middle school students to practice and reinforce math skills in a collaborative and competitive learning environment through purposeful and structured play.

Equity goal: This online math game builds math skill and confidence so that everyone can see themselves as "a math person"

My Contributions

  • I conducted a scoping review to identify and assess similar or related products and evaluated the interest and demand for a novel approach to supplement math learning using fantasy sports.

  • Working with Subject Matter Experts, youth, educators, and advisors, we designed lesson plan materials and low-fidelity prototypes of the game. The game was designed to meet the standards set by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. Using an iterative design process, feedback from focus groups, we designed a functional prototype.

  • Working with the techniqual development team, we developed a fully functional math game and teacher portal. The game is based in game-based learning priniples to increase engagement and motivation.

  • After a few more rounds of iterative testing, we conducted a pilot test in three schools

  • Students and teachers in the pilot test completed a pre and post test. The results show that students who played FSML were more skilled at working algebriac equations and had more confidence with math.

Pilot testing Fantasy Sports Math League in middle school math classrooms