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This application claims the benefit of U.S. provisional application No. 60/627,521, filed Nov. 12, 2004.
This invention relates to an educational game, and in particular to an educational game, which improves mathematical, and recognition skills. Educational games are a good tool for helping to teach specific subjects such as math, and the like. People, by nature, enjoy playing games that are fast and competitive, however, and in most educational games players take turns in answering, or they play individually. As a result, quickness is not rewarded and players become bored waiting their turn.
The subject invention overcomes this shortcoming of the prior art educational games by providing a game having a set of first playing elements, each of which presents a question, and two sets of second playing elements, each of which presents possible answers to these questions. The game is played by displaying a selected one of the first playing elements and rewarding the first player to display a second playing element from their set that answers the question that was displayed.
The foregoing and other objectives, features, and advantages of the invention will be more readily understood upon consideration of the following detailed description of the invention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
FIGS. 1-4 are plan views of cards that are examples of first playing elements that could be used in the game of the subject invention.
FIG. 5 is a plan view of a card that is an example of second playing elements that could be used in the game of the subject invention.
FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a board game that embodies the subject invention.
Referring to the drawings, a game includes a set of first playing elements 10. The first playing elements are shown in FIGS. 1 through 4 as playing cards 12, but they could be in other forms as well. For example, if the game were a computer game the first playing elements could be displayed as screens or as portions of screens. If the game were a board game the first playing elements could be displayed as faces on a die or dice. Each first playing element displays or presents an indicia 14 which is generally speaking in the form of a question. The question could be a mathematical equation or a problem as shown in FIG. 1. The question also could be a number of marks as shown in FIG. 2, a color, a geometric shape as shown in FIG. 3, a distinctive image as shown in FIG. 4 or any indicia that could suggest an answer. The term Answer should be broadly construed and include a matching indicia. While several sets of first playing cards could be included as part of a single game, typically only one set would be used at a time. If multiple sets were provided differed sets could present differed types of questions or the questions could be of different levels of difficulty.
The game also includes multiple sets of second playing elements 16. One set would be used by each player so the number of players that are possible would be determined by the number of sets. The second playing elements could be in any of the same forms suggested for the first playing elements, but again are shown in the drawings as being playing cards 18, FIG. 5. Each second playing element displays or presents an indicia 20 which is generally speaking in the form of an answer to a question presented by one of the first playing elements. If the question is a mathematical equation, the answer is the solution to the equation. If the question is a number of marks, the answer could be the corresponding numeral. If the question is a color, geometrical shape or distinctive image, the answer could be a matching color, geometric shape or image. Preferably each set of second playing elements contains elements that answer all of the questions in the set of first playing elements. The answer could be presented on a single second playing element or it could be obtained by combining the answer presented on multiple second playing elements, as will be more fully explained later.
Playing the game depends to some degree on the form of the game. While the following description of play relates to the playing elements being cards, it is generally applicable to any form of the game.
A set of first playing elements is shuffled and placed face down on the playing surface. One set of second playing elements is given to each player. The players typically would take turns being dealer and the dealer would turn over the top first playing element to display the question presented by it in a manner such that all of the players see it at the same time. The first player, or team of players, to display the second playing element in their set with the correct answer wins that round and is granted some type of reward. Alternatively, the players can also display multiple second playing elements which together answer the presented question. In the simplified version being described the reward is keeping the just-played first playing element. The second playing elements are then returned to the appropriate set and another player turns over the next first playing element and the process is repeated. This sequence continues until all of the first playing elements have been turned over. The winner is the player who has accumulated the most first playing elements.
If the players are divided into teams, play can take different forms. One form is that the answer comes from one or more second playing elements from the set of only one player in the team. Alternatively, the answer must be the combination of second playing elements from all of the players in a team.
In case of a tie, the second playing element could go to the player who wins the next hand. If no player correctly answers the presented question the first playing element could be placed back into the set of second playing elements.
Referring now to FIG. 6, if the game were in the form of a board game, it typically would include a board 22 having a plurality of connected playing spaces 24. A plurality of playing pieces 26, one for each player, are configured to be moved from space to space during play of the game. The first playing elements could be cards, similar to those used in the card game, or they could be indicia presented on the faces of a die or dice 28. The second playing elements also could be cards, or they could be flip cards 20 with each flip card presenting an answer. Play is similar to the card game except that rather than keeping the second playing element the winner of each hand moves their playing piece 26 one space 24 on the game board.
The terms and expressions which have been employed in the foregoing specification are used therein as terms of description and not of limitation, and there is no intention in the use of such terms and expressions of excluding equivalents of the features shown and described or portions thereof, it being recognized that the scope of the invention is defined and limited only by the claims which follow.