Ideals / Key Concept Card Games

I was lucky enough to spend the last weekend in Washington DC, hopping between museums and galleries. One of the things which inspired me was a card game designed to get people to discuss their ideals, which was playable at the American Museum of History.

There was a table set up with four matching decks of cards (each card has an image on it). In the middle there was a spinner which would select one word when stopped. You were invited to pick out four cards which related to that word, and then share your selections with the other players.

Here are some photos I took at the museum (excuse the quality):

I decided that this would be a fantastic game to play with my students and would stimulate some rich discussion. I remade the game, with the same instructions, but different images (images from PhotosForClass, which have the citation on the bottom). I've also made sure the images are all fairly ambiguous. Link to my presentation here. 
InstructionsDo you have shared ideals?

• Pick a word from the next slide
• Each player has a set of identical cards
• Without showing others, pick four cards which you think best fit the word. Place them face down in front of you.
• When everyone is ready, turn your cards face up.
• Now discuss the images you selected.
  • Did you pick different images? Find out why?
  • Did you pick the same image, but for different reasons?
• Choose a new issue and start again!

​I recommend going to 'file' then 'print settings' and selecting 4 or 6 slides per page. You can then cut out the cards and laminate them for use.

Of course because I am a big IB MYP nerd, I had to make some MYP specific cards! I decided to make another deck, with different pictures, and the ideals replaced with MYP Key Concepts! I would use this for an introduction to the MYP session for students and parents OR for MYP Training for teachers. I changed the rules slightly so that:
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1. Only two cards are selected
2. After revealing the cards the players need to decide on which one card best represents the key concept.

You could also use this deck at the beginning of a unit, when you introduce the key concept (you could also make a similar version of this game, but for your subject, and you could include only that group's key concepts, along with the related concepts)!

Link to Key Concepts Cards here.

Enjoy - let me know if you use this!
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