Refraction: Teaching Fractions through Gameplay

About

Refraction is an online puzzle game for teaching fractions. The game is not obviously a lesson in fractions, but requires knowledge of fractions to succeed. In Refraction, the player must partition lasers in order to power spaceships containing various animals who have gotten stuck in space, as shown in the picture. These animal spaceships all require different fractions of the lasers, and the player is given several pieces that split and bend the lasers to reach the animals and satisfy these requirements. These mechanics can be used to teach many important fraction concepts, such as equal partitioning, addition, multiplication, mixed numbers, improper fractions, and common denominators. The game itself is instrumented so that it records everything the player does, allowing teachers and researchers to analyze play data.

Refraction runs in the browser, using Adobe Flash Player. The game is a research project in progress, so we'll continue to update the game over time. You can play the game here.

Screenshots


Refraction teaches fractions through three models: laser width (continuous), flow frequency (discrete), and lasers colored by denominator.	Players save animals by manipulating fractions to match each animal's particular required value.


The mechanics cover many important fraction concepts, including equal partitioning, addition, multiplication, mixed numbers, improper fractions, and common denominators.	The magnifying glass helps students compare quantities multiplicatively.

Credits

Project Directors: Erik Andersen, Yun-En Liu, Eric Butler, Zoran Popović

Programming: Yun-En Liu, Erik Andersen, Eric Butler, Ethan Apter, Emma Lynch, Justin Irwen, Christian Lee, Mai Dang, Roy Szeto, Stephen Sievers

Graphic Art: Marianne Lee, Brian Britigan, Happy Dong

Game Concept: Seth Cooper, Erik Andersen

Advising: Zoran Popović, François Boucher-Genesse, Taylor Martin, Carmen Petrick

Principal Investigator: Zoran Popović

Prizes

The Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Prize for the Best Work in the Primary School Category, 38th NHK Japan Prize, 2011

Grand Prize: Best in Show Award, Disney Research Learning Challenge, SIGGRAPH 2010

Support

University of Washington Animation Research Labs
DARPA
NSF
Adobe
Microsoft
Intel

Research

	On the Harmfulness of Secondary Game Objectives Erik Andersen, Yun-En Liu, Richard Snider, Roy Szeto, Seth Cooper, Zoran Popović International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games (FDG 2011) Project Website [Paper (1.4 MB)]
	Feature-based Projections for Effective Playtrace Analysis Yun-En Liu, Erik Andersen, Richard Snider, Seth Cooper, Zoran Popović International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games (FDG 2011) Project Website [Paper (5 MB)]
	Placing a Value on Aesthetics in Online Casual Games Erik Andersen, Yun-En Liu, Richard Snider, Roy Szeto, Zoran Popović ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2011) Project Website [Paper (1.77 MB)]
	Gameplay Analysis through State Projection Erik Andersen, Yun-En Liu, Ethan Apter, François Boucher-Genesse, Zoran Popović International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games (FDG 2010) Project Website [Paper (1.36 MB)]