The entire class is challenged to compete against a fictitious group. Teams are encouraged to help each other by experimenting with different approaches. The games are also intended to motivate students by appealing to their imagination. For example, in Math Mystery, each team is presented with a situation describing how rabbits were stolen and how the police were unsuccessful in apprehending the culprits. However, the police have collected three clues as to the robbers' hide-away.
Students can buy the clues by solving crime-related mathematics problems.
The students' mission is to discover the hide-away, the number of thieves involved and how many rabbits were stolen. The use of games creates an atmosphere which encourages cooperation and group cohesion within competition. The learning of mathematical problem solving is incidental rather than intentional. The program has been in the pilot phase since September of 1993. Gunther's team is preparing to evaluate empirical data that they will collect in early May of 1994.