Student Guide for POW 6: Linear Nim
1. PROBLEM STATEMENT (2 pts)
a. Restate the tasks in your own words
0 – No tasks stated
1 – Tasks are copied from text or incomplete
2– Tasks are stated in student’s words, and are clear and concise
2. PROCESS (6 pts)
a. Describe your thought process in trying to understand the original game and develop a strategy
0 – No thought process described
1 – Poorly written/incomplete/vague statement of your thought process with
no reference to strategy
2 – Incomplete statement of thought process and strategies
3 – Adequate statement of thought process and strategies
4 – Complete and thorough description of your thought process with thorough
reference to strategies (using many examples)
b. Description of “key insights” that were important in understanding the game
0 – No key insights identified or described
1 – Poorly written/incomplete/vague description of key insights
2 – A complete an thorough description of the key insights
3. STRATEGIES ( 16 pts)
a. Describe the strategy you developed for the original game
0 – No strategy described
1 – Poor overall description that is incomplete and vague, with no examples showing how your strategy worked
2 –A satisfactory description of your strategy, with adequate examples showing
how your strategy worked
4 – A complete and thorough description of your strategy, with a comprehensive explanation of how your strategy worked for several examples
b. Describe variations you tested and their strategies
0 – No variations described
1 – One or two simple variations described with little if any explanation of the their strategies
2 - Several quality variations with an adequate explanation of their strategies
4 – A complete and thorough description of your variations that fully describes
the strategy of each variation
c. Provide all diagrams and sketches
0 – No diagrams provided
1 - Poor diagrams with little if any labels/explanations/comments
2 - Complete diagrams with clear and concise labels/explanations/comments
d. Describe all materials used and their purposes
0 – No description of materials used
1 – Incomplete description of materials, and no purposes given
2 - Complete description of materials, with in-depth discussion of purposes
e. Describe any problems you had, and how you solved them
0 – No description of problems encountered
1 – Vague and limited discussion of problems encountered
2 – Excellent discussion of several problems encountered, including a thorough record or your thought process used to deal with the problems
f. Describe all assistance provided and how it helped you
0 – No statement of assistance
1 – Clear statement of assistance with minimal description of how it helped
2 – Clear statement of assistance with a complete description of how it helped
4. GENERALIZATIONS ( 10 pts)
a. Description of general principals involved in deciding whether to go first or second
when considering the “initial number” and the “maximum per turn”
0 – No description of general principals given
1 – One general principal is poorly described
2 – Both general principals are poorly described
3 –One well described general principal and one poorly described principal
4 – Both general principals are correctly and adequately described
b. Description of other general principals developed about the variations of Linear Nim
0 – No description of any general principals
1- One poor or incomplete description of a general principal for a variations of
Linear Nim
2- Two to three poor or incomplete description of general principals for the variations
Of Linear Nim
3- One satisfactory description of a general principal and one to two poor or incomplete
description of a general principal for a variation of Linear Nim
4- Two satisfactory description of general principals for the variations you created
6 – Two or more complete and thorough descriptions of general principals for the
variations of Linear Nim that you created
5. EVALUATION (8pts)
a. State the difficulty level of the POW (scale of 1-10), explain
0 - no explanation of level
1- minimal explanation of level
2 - Complete and thorough explanation of level selected
b. Describe your personal reaction/opinion to the POW
0 - no opinion or reaction stated
1 - a minimal statement with little support
2 - a well discussed statement of opinion/reaction
c. Identify the best/worst parts of the POW
0 - no identification of best/worst parts of exp
1 - minimal listing of best/worst parts of exp
2 - Complete and thorough listing of best/worst parts of exp
d. Describe how the problem could have been made better for you
0 – No description on the problem could have been improved
1 – A vague and limited statement how the problem could have been improved
2 - Several, well-support comments and suggestions regarding improvement
6. SELF-ASSESSMENT (8 pts)
a. Write a one paragraph summary of “what you learned from Linear Nim”
0 - No summary paragraph
1. A brief, poorly written summary that demonstrates little understanding of the
tasks, creating variations, strategies, patterns and the mathematical ideas and
concepts involved in the POW
2. A fair summary that includes some support, but lacks one or two key points that
would have demonstrated understanding of the tasks, creating variations, strategies, patterns, and the mathematical ideas and concepts involved in the POW
3. A good summary that demonstrates an acceptable understanding of the tasks,
creating variations, strategies, general patterns, and the mathematical ideas
and concepts of the POW, however could be described in greater detail .
4. A well written summary written that demonstrates a thorough understanding of
the tasks, creating variations, explaining strategies and general patterns, and
identifying and explaining mathematical ideas and concepts in the POW
b. Grade and Justify your work using a self-assessment scoring rubric
0 – Work not graded with rubric
1 – Score values provide with no justification
2 - Score values provide with minimal rational and many/most values not
acceptable based on scoring guide criteria
3 - Scores values provided with fair/good rationales, but some values not
acceptablebased on scoring guide criteria
4 - Score values provided with strong rationales, all values acceptable based
onscoring guide criteria