CONTIG
by F. W. Broadbent
in the May 1972 issue
of The Arithmetic Teacher
Contig is a game that intermediate-grade children love to play,
but can be enjoyed by high school algebra students as well. I have
also used the game in my computer science classes when order of
operations is discussed.
The game provides drill and practice in the four basic arithmetic
operations: addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division,
as well as opportunities for basic problem solving and order of
operations.
Materials
The materials required are simple: Three dice, a score pad, counters
or markers, and a playing board.
You may print the following board and
photocopy it. Then just let the students put "X"s over the numbers that
are found.
Click here to see the Contig playing board
RULES OF THE GAME
1. Two to five players may play Contig.
2. To begin play, each player in turn rolls all three
dice. The player with the smallest sum begins play.
Play then progresses from left to right (or counter-clockwise).
3. The first player rolls the three dice. He must
use one or two operations on the three numbers shown
on the dice. He then covers the resulting number on the
board with a marker. When he has finished his turn, he passes the
dice to the player on his right. A player may not cover a
number that has been previously covered.
4. To score in Contig, a player must cover a number on the
board which is adjacerit vertically, horizontally, or diagonally
to another covered number. One point is scored for each adjacent
covered number.
5. When a player rolls the dice and cannot produce
a number that has not already been covered, he
must pass the dice to the next player. If he incorrectly
passes the dice, believing he has no
play when in fact he does have a play, any of
the other players may call out the mistake.
The first player to call attention to the error
may place his marker on the proper uncovered
number. This does not affect the turn of the
player citing the error.
6. A cumulative score is kept for each player. A
player is eliminated from further play in a game
when he fails in three successive turns to produce
a number that can be covered. When all
players have experienced three successive failures
to produce a coverable number, the game
ends. The player with the highest cumulative
score wins.
VARIATIONS OF CONTIG
1. For a faster game, allow only five turns for each
player. The player with the highest score after
five rounds would be the winner.
2. Use a one-minute timer to time the turn of each
player. This will tend to speed up the game.
3. Let any player challenge an opponent if the opponent
does not choose the number that will
score the maximum number of points. The challenger
should then receive the difference between
the number of points scored by the chosen number
and the greater number of points that could
have been scored.
4. Let students play it as a solitaire game, again with
a predetermined number of turns.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. How were the numbers used in Contig selected?
2. Why are some numbers between 1 and 216 left
off the Contig board?
3. How many ways can you cover each number in
Contig?
4. Would it be possible to use all the numbers from
1 to 216 on a Contig board if the dice went from
1 to 10?
REFERENCE -
F .W. Broadbent, Contig, Arithmetic Teacher
(May 1972).338- 390.