Flagway is a game created by Bob Moses, a 1960s civil rights organizer who has devoted several decades to increasing math literacy among low-income students and students of color. Since the 1990s, children and teens have played Flagway in after-school programs started by Moses and his colleagues. In the past three years, however, The Young People’s Project has encouraged the development of more formal teams and leagues across seven cities. According to the players, coaches and parents in those leagues, the game has improved students’ math literacy, engagement and teamwork. The game involves math skills and figuring out a color-coded course that the students have to complete by running.

When recruiting kids for an Alton, Ill., league, math professor Dr. Greg Budzban used a survey to find students who struggled with math. The survey included questions like:

“We’re looking for students that the physical engagement piece is something that attracted them,” said Budzban, who is dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.

All of the students who applied were accepted. He said that on pretests, almost none of the Alton students knew the math skills involved in Flagway, such as finding least common multiples or greatest common factors. On post-tests three months later, many students earned perfect scores.

In a 2009 case study in Chicago, the high school and college students who served as Flagway coaches also reported having increased flexibility with numbers as a result of the game. In Alton, a semester-long training for those coaches plays a role in the younger students’ success, according to Budzban.

But he also attributes the positive effects of Flagway to the game itself. “Translating the abstract mathematics into competition and movement helps (students) sort of embody the learning,” he said. “You’ve got more neural pathways that are involved.”

To read the article, which contains a link to the case study, visit this website.