catch that the deal was for a male and
I matched it with a female. Obviously,
the spinner revealed “no match.”
I worked with Tonya Mauk, a
middle school mathematics teach-
er at City View Charter School in
Hillsboro, Oregon, to use the program
with a variety of student abilities in
sixth, seventh, and eighth grade math
classes for a period of six months.
She and I found that Cabanga shares
the common positive effects of games
on school achievement, cognitive
abilities, motivation, attention, and
concentration.
Sixth grade students from the
school said they liked creating their
own avatars, acting as agents, and
using pie charts and other visuals.
Finding good deals, making matches,
and completing the math were some
of the tasks students found most difficult. Some of their suggestions for
improvement included greater levels
of difficulty and more levels, though
many liked the game as is.
Six Red Marbles intends this game
to be supplemental to instruction.
Mauk found that Cabanga was a great
way to engage students who showed
proficiency in the topic, and this gave
her time to work with smaller groups
of struggling students.
She said she liked the teacher dashboard because it gave her a general view
of what concepts to spend more time
on, and the individual reports allowed
her to target the needs of each student.
She noticed that students enjoyed
the leader board because it fostered a
sense of competition. However, once
students reached the platinum level,
there is not much else to do except
compete for the leader board.
Teachers who would like to measure
student success with state, Common
Core, and/or NCTM standards should
assign students to work on fast-cash
areas. Mauk noted that students
can be successful in the game without much fast cash, so they need
additional incentives to use that
option.
Cabanga’s role-playing challenge
is highly engaging. It requires a
teacher’s interaction and guidance,
yet students are in control of their
own agencies. They are challenged to
make business decisions that involve
probabilities, yet the experience is
enjoyable. Cabanga is a sound educational video game that helps students
learn math while having fun.
Cabanga
www.sixredmarbles.com/cabanga
$10 monthly subscription
$100 one-year subscription (educational pricing
available for 120 students or more)
Margaret “Maggie” L. Niess
is professor emeritus of math-
ematics education at Oregon
State University in Corvallis,
Oregon, USA. Her teaching
and research has focused on
development of teacher know-
ledge for teaching with technologies in math-
ematics and science.
is
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