Educational Potential
Game Over Gopher is a defense game built around a coordinate grid. The game guides students in the following:
• Plotting points on a coordinate plane when given a coordinate pair.
• Identifying coordinate pairs on a coordinate plane.
• Identifying the four quadrants, the x-axis, the y-axis, and the origin.
• Differentiating between positive and negative x-coordinates and y-coordinates on the coordinate plane.
• Identifying what happens when you increase or decrease the x-coordinate or the y-coordinate of a point.
• Reflecting points across the x-axis and the y-axis.
The game offers interactive modules and short animations intended to visually help learners better understand the concepts behind difficult mathematics concepts.
It also provides the teachers with helpful resources such as the gameplay video and the Teacher's guide.
The game is available in English and Spanish.

Learning Object / Suggested activities with students
The game can be played in different ways: students can play individually, in pairs, in small groups or in one large group using a smartboard, depending on the technology available in the classroom or computer lab.
It's okay to let students loose with the game before teacher has covered these concepts in class.
The game is not meant to assess; it is best at encouraging students to explore concepts and learn as they play.
It is advisable to show students the teaching video and then have them play the game, either alone or with a partner. Afterwards, come together as a class to discuss the experience and what everyone learned in the process. At the end of the session in the class, give your students a chance to play again for reinforcement. Have them reflect about how the latter experience was different from their first gameplay session.
It is also advisable for teachers to watch the teaching video for each game (shorter than 10 minutes) that offers important hints on how to use the game and how to engage students in follow up activities to help them apply what they've learned. Also teachers should read the Teacher's guide for more suggestions on how to use the game in the classroom.

Skills and competences acquired
The game addresses common core standards related to application of coordinates, ordered pairs, and absolute value to solving real-world and mathematical problems.
Students can understand the coordinate grid and become more comfortable with graphing.
Suggested methods for assessment:
1. By the end of the game (or game level) teachers can ask students to list different vocabulary words and say where they saw them in the game. Some examples (not a complete list): Coordinate plane, quadrant I, quadrant II, quadrant III, quadrant IV, x-axis, y-axis, origin, point, positive number, negative number, coordinate pair, x- coordinate, y-coordinate, vertical line, horizontal line, increase, decrease, reflect, scale.
2. The teacher can draw a blank coordinate grid without any labels on the board and have students label it using the vocabulary words listed in question 1.
3. The teacher could ask students to give some real world examples of where they might see coordinate grids. (e.g. maps, blueprints, and streets use grids to identify locations using points.)