Role Playing Games for Mathematics Education

Schools and Universities have a lack of motivation in students when it comes to learning mathematics. The Adventure School method was created to encourage student motivation, participation and creativity in order to learn math based on role playing games. In this role playing, students choose a "profession" and form an association called "clan" that gives them great learning benefits during the school period. Further after, students work with different teams (from different clans) confronting fictitious situations that involve finding math solutions. As they resolve the situation, previously established by the teacher, they obtain "experience points". The experience points serve to increase the benefit of their profession (reward system based on the theory of the game) until they reach the legendary level. At legendary level the students get extra perks during class. This methodology has been implemented for more than five years. The students have given a positive feedback. Also, team participation has increased and students have socialized more with their peers. The Adventure School method is focused in the areas of mathematics but it is easy to adapt to any other area of knowledge. It is only a matter of making some adjustments.