I was a fan of Mastermind as a kid, envisioning myself like the mysterious gentleman on the box lid, using my superior intellect and logic to solve the puzzle and defeat the codemaker. In this two-player code-breaking board game, the codemaker sets a sequence of four colored pegs using any of six available colors. The codebreaker makes guesses and after each guess, the codemaker responds with key pegs. A black key peg indicates a correct guess in the correct place and a white key peg indicated a correct guess in the wrong place. A quick game with simple rules. Kent Haines, in his blog Games for Young Minds gives some excellent suggestions for questions to ask children when playing a game of Mastermind. He states, "The best question to ask, in my opinion, is 'What did you learn from that guess?' The question is open-ended enough that you aren't guiding your child to a particular conclusion, but it keeps your child focused on the fact that she can learn something from every guess, even one that resulted in no pegs." There are lots of similar guessing games where each incorrect guess gets you closer to the answer. Wordle has become an incredibly popular online word guessing game that has brought new attention to this style of game. There are dozens of versions of similar online guessing games. Dan Meyer wrote about the characteristics of this game in a post titled Why Wordle Works, According to Desmos Lesson Developers. One of the key characteristics is effective feedback. Like a good self-checking task in the mathematics classroom, effective feedback attaches meaning to thinking. Each piece of feedback supports the learner in getting closer to their goal. Pico, Fermi, BagelPico, Fermi, Bagel is a numerical guessing game with a long history. I first learned about this game from the book Math for Smarty Pants by Marilyn Burns (1982). In this book she called the game "Bagels." In this game the codemaker selects a three digit number. After each guess, the codemaker responds with clues. "Fermi" means that there is a correct digit in the correct place. "Pico" means that there is a correct digit in the wrong place. "Bagel" means that the guess has no correct digits. For example, if the code is 967 and the guess is 617, the clue would be "Fermi, pico." Fermi for the 7 (correct digit in the correct place) and pico for the 6 (a correct digit but in the wrong place). A guess of 167 would result in the a clue of "Fermi, fermi". Let me tell you why I like this game...Pico, Fermi, Bagel has been played in classrooms for decades. There is a reason that it has such lasting appeal.
A Pico, Fermi, Bagel Desmos activity
Extension QuestionsHere are some thinking questions you might ask students to consider.
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