Aliens, Planets, and Nebulae!

A Math Role Playing Game

I have developed materials for a Math Role Playing Game (RPG) for classrooms, afterschool, homeschool, or whatever floats your boat (or spaceship). This game can be completely screen free (although Google Sheets can be helpful for facilitators). This is my initial draft. I will post materials as they get organized.  Please let me know what you think.

STEAM Teachers – You can take any of the missions and have students build models, python code, or practice prototyping any of their solutions. I’ve had students build paper cranes, Lego/Lux Blox ship models, bridges (of just about every material), etc.. Each mission will run longer with prototyping, but I haven’t had any issues with engagement so far. Need suggestions for a specific mission – contact me. You can also take this as a skeleton and build your own missions once you get the flow of it. Buoyancy, circuits, momentum, water rockets, STEAM challenges, etc. can easily get integrated into missions. I have done Tesla coil demos when kids were asking about wireless power, or magnetic levitation, etc.. Let the solutions and iterations organically grow.

Aliens, Planets and Nebulae! is what you make it! There is a galaxy, a crew of aliens, and missions of mathematical nature. It encourages multiple subjects to be integrated and can easily be used to teach a project-based curriculum. Each link below is about 2 class periods, but can easily expand into more depending on detail or added rubric. Below are the materials to get started. Please contact me if you have questions.

• Getting started: Crew Member Creation and Ship Design
  • The first meeting/class is for character creation.This can take as little as 45-60 minutes or up to 3 hours depending on the depth that the class wants to go to with ship design.
• Missions/Events:
  • Each Mission can take 1-3 hrs depending on how deep students want to dive or if homework is assigned. Note: Missions do not have to be done in order (you can rearrange them and modify).
  • Mission 1: A Water Crisis
  • Mission 2: Collect a Virus Sample from Ni Moon
  • Mission 3: Rescue Mission in the Y-Nebula
  • Emergency Stop: Distress Signal
  • Mission 4: Diplomacy – Mediation for a Currency Dispute
  • Mission 5: Science Investigation
  • Award from MASS! Each character gains a new skill and hobby if all of their qualities are above 2.
  • Mission 6: La Poisson System has a Density Problem
  • Mission 7: Radioactive Decay Analysis on Gamma V Station
  • Award from MASS! Each character gains a new skill and hobby if all of their qualities are above 3.
  • Mission 8: Mean on the Galactic Society Space Tracks
  • Mission 9: Rogue Robot
  • Mission 10 – MASS Chain reaction contest
  • Award from MASS! Each character gains a new skill and hobby if all of their qualities are above 4.
• Extra credit:
  • Write a character backstory. (2 Ability points)
  • Write a math flash fiction. (1 Ability point)
  • Create a word problem for your peers about your ship. (1 Ability point)
  • Create a comic about your mission(s). (2-10 Ability points)
  • Perform and document a science investigation that expands on a principle in one of the missions. (2-10 Ability points)