ABSTRACT
The learning of integers at the middle school level is a transition from natural numbers to new set of numbers involving negative numbers. Being a transitional activity, there is need to provide hands-on experiences in terms of ‘to the left and to the right’ of a reference point. Keeping this need in view, a board game was designed to be played at grade seven to provide hands on learning.
In order to covert the designed integers board game into a pedagogical tool, an observational sheet was also developed to codify the moves in the play of the game. In the design, the size and lay-out of the strips, with integer from (+8) to (-8) marked on it, was worked out and the dice was designed using origami with A-4 size paper forming a square pyramid with integers (+1), (+2), (0), (-1) and (-2) on its four faces and zero as the integer when the dice lands on its square face.
The design and the observation sheet was tested by transacting the game with four students. The outcome of the design exercise was in the form of a board game, which can be used as a pedagogical tool for hands-on experience for learning about integers at the upper primary level.
Keywords: Board game, design process, design thinking, hands-on activity, integers, pedagogical experiments
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