Dragon+Box

= = toc =** Dragon Box (elementary version) **=

**Description**
Dragon Box is advertised as a fun way to teach kids basic Algebra skills without them even knowing they are learning Algebra. I played the iPad version for younger kids (there is a 12+ version). The game is set up as a basic puzzle solver, like "Cut the Rope" or even "Angry Birds." Basically, the player has to solve short puzzles that often take less than a minute in actual playing time, although it can take many attempts to solve the puzzle. Players are either successful at solving or not, but they also get graded 1, 2, or 3 stars, encouraging players to not only solve the puzzle, but solve the puzzle the best way possible. In Dragon Box, the puzzle is simple, as described in the pictures below: there are two sides to the puzzle, one side has a box: get the box alone on its side. To get 3 stars in solving the puzzle, you also have to get rid of as many cards as you can.

What do you learn?
First, of course, you learn the basic concept of the puzzle (above). All of the learning here is paired with Algebra concepts, although this is not taught. The above puzzle is of course an example of isolating the variable to solve an equation. That's all the information you start with, but you need to pick up a few more concepts as you move through the puzzle levels.

1. Each card has a night card, and if you drag a "day" card over a night card (or vice versa), the two cards disappear (concept of opposites, -3 +3=0)

2. You can add a card from the deck, but you have to add it to both sides. You can also "flip" the card between night and day cards. The point would be to put opposites (day or night) of a card into the puzzle to get rid of it (i.e., X-2=8....X-2+2=8+2...X=10; again, the "algebra" part is not explicitly covered in the game, I'm just filling in the correlations).

3. If two identical cards are stacked, you can move the bottom to the top and they will turn into a dice block equal to 1 (4/4=1). You can also add cards from the deck under other cards so you can perform this function, but you need to add that to every group. You can also place a card next to another card in the stack (fraction) so you can do this process.

4.If you have a 1 dice block attached to another number, you can slide them together and the 1 will disappear (8x1=8)

5. Different symbols mean different things, and they don't always stay the same. Some symbols are just pictures. For instance, at one point a swirly black symbol in a green box meant that if you tapped it, the card/symbol would disappear. Later, this turned into a "0". The Box also turned into an "X" at some point. At the beginning of the game, all of the cards were pictures of monsters, but later, more traditional mathematical symbols were used, like "i", although they functioned just like the pictures. Finally, the night cards functioned in a certain way, and later, when the math symbols started to populate, a "-" (negative) symbol meant the same thing. Compare an early puzzle with a later one.

How did the game teach?
1. Active, Critical Learning Principle, Probing Principle 2. Semiotic Principle, Situated Meaning Principle 3. "Psychosocial Moratorium" Principle 4. Achievement Principle, "Regime of Competence" Principle 5. Multiple Routes Principle 6. Incremental Principle, Bottom-up Basic Skills Principle, Discover Principle, Transfer Principle, Just-in-Time Principle >
 * The game, being on a tablet, required a lot of touching and hand gestures, but it also was set up to provide minimal instructions (often two-three words), images, and then expected the player to do some exploring to figure out exactly how to follow the instructions. Then the player was constantly and actively solving the puzzle and trying out different methods to arrive at the answer.
 * There were a lot of symbols that you had to learn, and what actions you could do with what different symbols. The whole mathematical idea of "symbols" having a fluid meaning and being able to represent something multiple ways was a big part of this game. The symbols were pretty specific; a "shadow" monster (night card) meant that you could put a light monster on top of it
 * Failing at these games is really part of the puzzle-solving process; you fail and you quickly try again. This is a lot different than missing a problem on a worksheet, quiz, test, etc., where you are simply "wrong."
 * The game started out very easy and was constantly rewarding you with progress and stars. The game got progressively harder and more complex as a player advanced in levels, but the amount of increased complexity from one level to the next was very minimal.
 * This was sort of applied; you could solve the puzzle any way you wanted, but there was a "best" way in terms of a minimal amount of moves to solve a puzzle. However, it's likely that there is slightly different ways in some instances to solve the puzzle in the fewest moves.
 * Basically, as you can see from the above pictures, the game would present a short image-based tutorial with minimal words showing you how to do something, and then the next puzzle would require that you use that information to solve it. At times, like when the "X" symbol suddenly replaced the Box, only subtle clues were given (the Box had a green glow around it, now the "X" does); the swirling symbol that meant "0" disappeared when you touched it, so you found that out accidentally as soon as you tried to move it (the same happened when the "0" symbol replaced the swirling symbol). Sometimes no clue was given, like when the "-" symbol replaced the night card, and players had to figure this out. The game was always slowly increasing in complexity, requiring players to build on their early skills, as well as make some transfer of learning as you advanced in the game and the game expected you to figure out some information without prompts.

Reflections
I went into this game with some misgivings, namely because it was advertised as teaching kids algebra without then knowing it, and I generally am against tricking kids into learning. However, what the game really does is take isolating the variable in equations and presenting it like a puzzle, which, in a way, it actually is. The puzzle game idea isn't really different than how a good student would approach solving an equation anyways. The fact that they were able to simplify all of the concepts into a playable game was actually quite exciting and engaging. I didn't even get bored with the game, which was a bit easy for me since I already understood the concepts, until well into an hour playing it. I am the type of person to get addicted to these puzzle games like Cut the Rope, so it was really up my alley. I am curious to see how different ages of kids react to the game.

I would love to see this game incorporated into younger kids math classes. There are many ways to waste your time on iPads in classrooms, but this is not a waste at all. Having kids complete this entire app before ever formally learning how to isolate the variable would be a huge boost; because the Dragon Box game eventually swaps pictures for more traditional mathematical symbols, the transfer to paper/pencil equation solving would be fairly straightforward.

I'm planning on testing the game out on my kids, starting with the 4 year old and moving up to the 11 year old. I plan on just handing them the app and watching and seeing if they get it. I'll update the wiki here after I test it out.