Why Game-Based Learning Works for This Math Teacher

When Giulia Bini started using a video game in her high school calculus class, she saw a 100 percent pass rate on testing about limits compared to 80 percent in the previous year; plus, grades rose by 10 percent.

The game she used, Variant: Limits by Triseum, places players on an imaginary planet. To rescue the planet from "imminent doom," they help "Equa," the main character, solve a series of increasingly tough calculus problems.

Triseum, based in Bryan, TX, grew out of the Texas A&M University Live Lab, to target games for college students tackling calculus and art. The "Learning Interactive Visualization Experience" Lab collaborates with other departments and institutions to create educational games. Lab Founder and Director Andre Thomas also leads Triseum.

According to Bini, who teaches in Milan, Italy, she assigned the game as homework, asking her students to get through "Zone 1," the first level. Class time was used to share ideas about the meanings of the math terms in the game, to address the content, answer questions and introduce the next levels. But students had a tendency to jump ahead, playing the game even before Bini had covered the next set of concepts.

"Because [students] were playing a game, it hardly seemed like homework," she wrote in a blog article about her experiences.

Bini also used a YouTube video and interspersed questions to walk students through a graphing exercise and created a drag & drop assessment to test their understanding. She found those activities so successful, she created a digital library of online and offline assessments for her own purposes and to share with others, some of the content in Italian, most in English.

Eventually, as the class moved on to other units, she had to return to the use of more traditional resources. However, noted Bini, "Variant truly changed [students'] attitudes about math. They have become more deeply involved with the concepts, they retained the information and they had fun."

Now she's awaiting additional games in the calculus series, which Triseum said it expected to release this fall.

Variant: Limits is currently available in the Triseum online store.

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.

Featured

  • horizontal stack of U.S. dollar bills breaking in half

    ED Abruptly Cancels ESSER Funding Extensions

    The Department of Education has moved to close the door on COVID relief funding for schools, declaring that "extending deadlines for COVID-related grants, which are in fact taxpayer funds, years after the COVID pandemic ended is not consistent with the Department’s priorities and thus not a worthwhile exercise of its discretion."

  • illustration of a human head with a glowing neural network in the brain, connected to tech icons on a cool blue-gray background

    Meta Introduces Stand-Alone AI App

    Meta Platforms has launched a stand-alone artificial intelligence app built on its proprietary Llama 4 model, intensifying the competitive race in generative AI alongside OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, and xAI.

  • The AI Show

    Register for Free to Attend the World's Greatest Show for All Things AI in EDU

    The AI Show @ ASU+GSV, held April 5–7, 2025, at the San Diego Convention Center, is a free event designed to help educators, students, and parents navigate AI's role in education. Featuring hands-on workshops, AI-powered networking, live demos from 125+ EdTech exhibitors, and keynote speakers like Colin Kaepernick and Stevie Van Zandt, the event offers practical insights into AI-driven teaching, learning, and career opportunities. Attendees will gain actionable strategies to integrate AI into classrooms while exploring innovations that promote equity, accessibility, and student success.

  • robot waving

    Copilot Updates Aim to Personalize AI

    Microsoft has introduced a range of updates to its Copilot platform, marking a new phase in its effort to deliver what it calls a "true AI companion" that adapts to individual users' needs, preferences and routines.