Explain this
Nubble Deluxe
How the publisher describes it:
“Nubble! Deluxe is a high resolution version of the maths board game Nubble! that includes a "Headstart" option in which between 10 and 50 hexagons are randomly covered over at the start of the game. This means that players are immediately immersed in the heart of the game and a full game can be completed quickly at the start or the end of a lesson.”
Review by Sue Flower
In brief:
Nubble! is a great activity for practising mental arithmetic and demonstrating that in maths it is possible to have more than one right answer.
“They increasingly worked together”
Nubble! requires you to use the rules of arithmetic with the scores on 4 dice to make a path across a number board from 0 to 100. The board is zoned and you score according to which zone your number is in and whether you create a Nubble!, a triangle of numbers, or even a Double Nubble! where your triangle includes a prime number.
Nubble! Deluxe offers a variety of options on start up. There is a choice of 1 to 4 players and playing against the computer with 3 playing levels and a ‘Headstart’ option which covers some numbers before the game begins. It is also possible to set a time limit.
I have used this with able Year 7 and 8 classes and mid ability Year 10 as a short activity at the end of a lesson. As well as developing their mental arithmetic skills they increasingly worked together to chose the number to use which provided the largest score. As the board filled up this became increasingly challenging and plenty of discussion resulted. When they realised that a Double Nubble! resulted in a cheer from the game there was much greater focus on achieving this result!
When used on an interactive whiteboard some students, particularly those nearer the back of the class, found parts of the board difficult to see.
Nubble! is a great activity for practising mental arithmetic and, for me, has the added bonuses of highlighting the prime numbers up to 100 and demonstrating that in maths it is possible to have more than one right answer. I’ll definitely be continuing to use this with my students.
Sue Flower • Key Stage 3/4 teacher
CD-ROM
Publisher: Virtual Image Publishing Ltd (2009)
ISBN-10: 1901579239
ISBN-13: 978-1901579239
