Data Adventures

Game Maker

Lesson 2: Paperclip Toss

Students design a paperclip-toss game to make scoring easy or challenging, then collect score data and use mean, median, and mode to test whether their design produced the experience they intended.

Class time

about 60 minutes

Lesson

Lesson 2 of 4

Adventure

Game Maker

Overview

Students explore how game design shapes outcome data by participating in a quick paperclip toss activity. After observing patterns of where the paperclips land, groups design their own game to intentionally make scoring either easy or challenging. Students test their games and collect toss and total score data, then calculate and analyze mean, median, and mode to determine whether their design choices actually produced the intended player experience. Communication and collaborative reasoning are used throughout to explain how design decisions affect data outcomes. This lesson builds foundational data sense and prepares students to design more complex games.

Student Objectives

I can…

  • ✓ I can describe how data can be created when playing a physical game.
  • ✓ I can notice and discuss patterns in data.
  • ✓ I can design a tossing game with criteria for regions, point values, and rules.
  • ✓ I can collect and record score data from gameplay.
  • ✓ I can use mean, median, and mode to reflect on how game design affects scoring.

At a Glance

Total: about 60 minutes
Section Time Slides What happens
Launch — connect to SEL and Data Habits of Mind 5 min 3–7 Introduce the lesson and begin with an SEL check-in: what kinds of emotions could you feel while playing a game, and what are healthy ways to manage big emotions? Describe the lesson flow, review classroom agreements, and connect to the Data Habit of Mind: communication.
Engage — connect to prior experience and set the stage for game design 8 min 8–12 Bridge back to Lotería Toss (Lesson 1) by inviting students to reflect on the data and their experiences — results, fairness, and difficulty — then connect to design choices. Share the driving question — how can the same game create different data depending on how it's designed? — and preview key vocabulary: mean, median, and mode.
Collect data — do a quick toss 5 min 13–14 Groups complete a quick, timed paperclip toss (at least 4 tosses per person) and record their data on Part 1 of Group Handout 1 — Paperclip Toss (page 1).
Reflect — notice patterns and surprises in the data 5 min 15–16 Groups look at their data and discuss patterns and surprises they notice, using the questions and sentence starters provided. Invite groups to share one key insight with the whole class.
Design — create a game board and rules to meet criteria 12 min 17–22 Introduce the game-board challenge and explain the design criteria. Give groups 5 minutes to design a game that is either easy or challenging and to complete Part 2 of Group Handout 1 — Paperclip Toss (pages 2 and 3).
Collect data — play and chart scores 5 min 23 Game play. Give groups 5 minutes to play their game, collect data, and record scores, completing Part 3 of Group Handout 1 — Paperclip Toss (page 4). On a 45-minute schedule, this is a good place to pause the lesson.
Analyze data — determine mode, median, and mean 15 min 24–25 Students examine the score data, calculate the central tendencies, and use the results to decide whether the game functioned as intended, completing the Student Handout — Paperclip Toss Mode, Median, Mean. Point students to Group Handout 2 — Mean, Median, Mode Supports for help with the analysis.
Reflect — make sense of the data, identify Data Habits of Mind, and check emotions 5 min 26–28 Ask a few students to share how data informed their design decisions — what does the data say about your game? Discuss how communication showed up in the lesson, then have students check in on their emotions and name how they feel before they leave.

Materials & Prep

Print
Gather
  • Paperclips
    3–5 per group.
  • Markers or colored pencils
    Several colors for each group of 3–4.
  • Optional examples of game designs
  • Optional noise-reducing headphones
  • Optional sentence starters and visual / bilingual vocabulary cards
Digital
  • Slide deck and projector
    Internet access and a computer with projector to show slides.
  • Optional: Lotería Number Data Tracker
    Digital display or poster from Lesson 1 showing class data of number frequency.
Before you teach
  • Decide how materials will be distributed (stations) for groups to design their game.
  • Set out paperclips and drawing supplies for each group.
  • Optional — prepare to share the completed Lotería Number Data Tracker from Lesson 1.
  • Locate the completed digital data display (or poster) the class created.
  • Add an image to slide 8 in the Game Maker Lesson 2 Slides: Paperclip Toss.

Slides & Teaching Guide

Open deck to project Open in Google Slides
How to use these speaker notes

Every slide's notes follow the same four labels so you can find what you need at a glance.

Time:
Approximate pacing for the slide.
Example Script:
Suggested language to say to students. Paraphrase freely to match your voice.
Do:
Appears only when a specific action or facilitation move is needed (invite a volunteer, collect a data sheet, etc.). If you don't see a "Do" line, the script is all that's needed.
Purpose:
Why the slide is here and what it's building toward in the lesson.