INFORMS Open Forum

Karmel Shehadeh (Lehigh), Luis Novoa (JMU), and I are working on a paper about using the Burrito Optimization Game in classes to introduce students to optimization.

(I collaborated with Gurobi Optimization to develop the game. It's a free resource that anyone can use in learning about or teaching optimization. Players drag and drop burrito trucks onto a city map to serve customers. The goal is to maximize the total profit, and the player's solutions are compared side-by-side with optimal ones. It's a facility location problem -- but a player doesn't need to know anything about that to start playing the game. Rather, the idea is to teach them why they might want to use optimization. The game is a fun introduction to optimization, a demonstration of how math is applicable to real-world decisions, and evidence that optimization is difficult and that utilizing an algorithm is essential. I wrote a short article about the game earlier this year in OR/MS Today. You can play the game at http://burritooptimizationgame.com/.)

Anyway -- working on the paper with Karmel and Luis made me curious to hear from others: What games, apps, or other unconventional educational resources do you use with your students? Or, if you don't teach, do you use anything like this to inform and educate colleagues, clients, or other audiences?

------------------------------
Larry Snyder
Professor
Lehigh University
Bethlehem PA
lvs2@lehigh.edu
------------------------------

Hi Larry,

Love the BOG idea!

I've used Deal or No Deal to teach decision making under uncertainty. An instructor can use it to talk about probability, risk, and utility in both engineering and management classrooms. 

Also, at one time I was very into Settlers of Catan and, with the help of a student, developed a probability tutorial (Java) using the game board as the context. It asks and provides answers to a variety of questions around dice rolling. 

You can find both here

Tim

------------------------------
Timothy Chan
University of Toronto
Toronto ON
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 12-15-2022 10:53
From: Lawrence Snyder
Subject: What games do you use in teaching?

Karmel Shehadeh (Lehigh), Luis Novoa (JMU), and I are working on a paper about using the Burrito Optimization Game in classes to introduce students to optimization.

(I collaborated with Gurobi Optimization to develop the game. It's a free resource that anyone can use in learning about or teaching optimization. Players drag and drop burrito trucks onto a city map to serve customers. The goal is to maximize the total profit, and the player's solutions are compared side-by-side with optimal ones. It's a facility location problem -- but a player doesn't need to know anything about that to start playing the game. Rather, the idea is to teach them why they might want to use optimization. The game is a fun introduction to optimization, a demonstration of how math is applicable to real-world decisions, and evidence that optimization is difficult and that utilizing an algorithm is essential. I wrote a short article about the game earlier this year in OR/MS Today. You can play the game at http://burritooptimizationgame.com/.)

Anyway -- working on the paper with Karmel and Luis made me curious to hear from others: What games, apps, or other unconventional educational resources do you use with your students? Or, if you don't teach, do you use anything like this to inform and educate colleagues, clients, or other audiences?

------------------------------
Larry Snyder
Professor
Lehigh University
Bethlehem PA
lvs2@lehigh.edu
------------------------------

Hi Larry,

First, many thanks for all your efforts on the Burrito game. I've used it in my MSc class and students loved it. Such a great resource for teaching optimization!

This past month, I used "paper airplane manufacturing" game (link) to illustrate concepts of pull and push systems in manufacturing, work in progress, cycle time, throughput time and Little's Law. I found it very helpful to discuss the technical side of Little's Law after the fact that students have observed accumulation of inventory in the push system and the reduced throughput time in the pull system.

Best,
Ali

------------------------------
Ali Hassanzadeh
Assistant Professor in Management Science
University of Manchester
Manchester
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 12-15-2022 10:53
From: Lawrence Snyder
Subject: What games do you use in teaching?

Karmel Shehadeh (Lehigh), Luis Novoa (JMU), and I are working on a paper about using the Burrito Optimization Game in classes to introduce students to optimization.

(I collaborated with Gurobi Optimization to develop the game. It's a free resource that anyone can use in learning about or teaching optimization. Players drag and drop burrito trucks onto a city map to serve customers. The goal is to maximize the total profit, and the player's solutions are compared side-by-side with optimal ones. It's a facility location problem -- but a player doesn't need to know anything about that to start playing the game. Rather, the idea is to teach them why they might want to use optimization. The game is a fun introduction to optimization, a demonstration of how math is applicable to real-world decisions, and evidence that optimization is difficult and that utilizing an algorithm is essential. I wrote a short article about the game earlier this year in OR/MS Today. You can play the game at http://burritooptimizationgame.com/.)

Anyway -- working on the paper with Karmel and Luis made me curious to hear from others: What games, apps, or other unconventional educational resources do you use with your students? Or, if you don't teach, do you use anything like this to inform and educate colleagues, clients, or other audiences?

------------------------------
Larry Snyder
Professor
Lehigh University
Bethlehem PA
lvs2@lehigh.edu
------------------------------

Hi Larry,

I made a series of games/puzzles with the aim of introducing the concept of optimization to layman audiences of all ages. They were designed in a such a way that you only need access to a printer to print the PDF and then use a pair of scissors to cut out the pieces needed to play the game. You can find the games here:

https://thyunes.github.io/games.html

I use the Lego one (my modification of the original OR Lego puzzle from OR/MS Today) on day 1 of my optimization class for MBAs (in that case, I bring Lego bricks to class), and I've used the "Pack That Bag!" a few times in sample lectures that I sometimes get asked to teach to prospective students.

Best,

Tallys

------------------------------
Tallys Yunes
Associate Professor
University of Miami
Coral Gables FL
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 12-15-2022 10:53
From: Lawrence Snyder
Subject: What games do you use in teaching?

Karmel Shehadeh (Lehigh), Luis Novoa (JMU), and I are working on a paper about using the Burrito Optimization Game in classes to introduce students to optimization.

(I collaborated with Gurobi Optimization to develop the game. It's a free resource that anyone can use in learning about or teaching optimization. Players drag and drop burrito trucks onto a city map to serve customers. The goal is to maximize the total profit, and the player's solutions are compared side-by-side with optimal ones. It's a facility location problem -- but a player doesn't need to know anything about that to start playing the game. Rather, the idea is to teach them why they might want to use optimization. The game is a fun introduction to optimization, a demonstration of how math is applicable to real-world decisions, and evidence that optimization is difficult and that utilizing an algorithm is essential. I wrote a short article about the game earlier this year in OR/MS Today. You can play the game at http://burritooptimizationgame.com/.)

Anyway -- working on the paper with Karmel and Luis made me curious to hear from others: What games, apps, or other unconventional educational resources do you use with your students? Or, if you don't teach, do you use anything like this to inform and educate colleagues, clients, or other audiences?

------------------------------
Larry Snyder
Professor
Lehigh University
Bethlehem PA
lvs2@lehigh.edu
------------------------------

Thank you all for sharing these great teaching games and ideas. I'd like to point out that INFORMS has a journal dedicated encouraging creation and facilitating dissemination of classroom-tested pedagogical approaches, case studies, games, puzzles, software, data sets, and other educational materials for teaching operations research (OR), management science (MS), and analytics, namely INFORMS Transactions on Education (ITE) (see https://pubsonline.informs.org/journal/ited).

The content published in ITE is available freely. You can find plenty of games there for you to use. And also: please think about publishing your game in INFORMS Transactions on Education (ITE). You'll find it rewarding to make your work available to so many teachers out there, and you'll see that the referee process is quite constructive and helpful.

Best,
Dries Goossens
Ghent University

------------------------------
Dries Goossens
Professor
Ghent University
Gent
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 12-15-2022 10:53
From: Lawrence Snyder
Subject: What games do you use in teaching?

Karmel Shehadeh (Lehigh), Luis Novoa (JMU), and I are working on a paper about using the Burrito Optimization Game in classes to introduce students to optimization.

(I collaborated with Gurobi Optimization to develop the game. It's a free resource that anyone can use in learning about or teaching optimization. Players drag and drop burrito trucks onto a city map to serve customers. The goal is to maximize the total profit, and the player's solutions are compared side-by-side with optimal ones. It's a facility location problem -- but a player doesn't need to know anything about that to start playing the game. Rather, the idea is to teach them why they might want to use optimization. The game is a fun introduction to optimization, a demonstration of how math is applicable to real-world decisions, and evidence that optimization is difficult and that utilizing an algorithm is essential. I wrote a short article about the game earlier this year in OR/MS Today. You can play the game at http://burritooptimizationgame.com/.)

Anyway -- working on the paper with Karmel and Luis made me curious to hear from others: What games, apps, or other unconventional educational resources do you use with your students? Or, if you don't teach, do you use anything like this to inform and educate colleagues, clients, or other audiences?

------------------------------
Larry Snyder
Professor
Lehigh University
Bethlehem PA
lvs2@lehigh.edu
------------------------------

Hi Larry,

I've done some explaining of concepts to colleagues, professional development students, Uber drivers who ask what I do and don't understand how I'm not an accountant, etc.

To explain the basic structure of a decision tree, I use Guess Who. People who have played this game usually have some decision-tree-like strategy they've found works best. To explain permutations, combinations, and shortest paths, I use Rubik's Cubes. I have yet to get tired of watching the disbelief when people hear how many ways you can make a standard 3x3 cube. If someone wants to learn about simulation and a computer is available, I use Google to find a Monte Hall Problem simulator.

Ticket to Ride is great for explaining optimization problems with nodes and arcs. But, someone needs to either be actively playing this game or very familiar with it to understand the optimization aspect. Similarly, Love Letter and Quacks of Quedlinburg are great for basic probability concepts, and any deck building game can illustrate data sampling. These games work for teaching OR concepts when people want to hear about them. I don't recommend anyone follows my example of going on tangents about the math in the game mechanics when setting them for a game night.

------------------------------
Kathryn Walter
Senior Operations Research Analyst
Avista Corp
Alexandria VA
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 12-15-2022 10:53
From: Lawrence Snyder
Subject: What games do you use in teaching?

Karmel Shehadeh (Lehigh), Luis Novoa (JMU), and I are working on a paper about using the Burrito Optimization Game in classes to introduce students to optimization.

(I collaborated with Gurobi Optimization to develop the game. It's a free resource that anyone can use in learning about or teaching optimization. Players drag and drop burrito trucks onto a city map to serve customers. The goal is to maximize the total profit, and the player's solutions are compared side-by-side with optimal ones. It's a facility location problem -- but a player doesn't need to know anything about that to start playing the game. Rather, the idea is to teach them why they might want to use optimization. The game is a fun introduction to optimization, a demonstration of how math is applicable to real-world decisions, and evidence that optimization is difficult and that utilizing an algorithm is essential. I wrote a short article about the game earlier this year in OR/MS Today. You can play the game at http://burritooptimizationgame.com/.)

Anyway -- working on the paper with Karmel and Luis made me curious to hear from others: What games, apps, or other unconventional educational resources do you use with your students? Or, if you don't teach, do you use anything like this to inform and educate colleagues, clients, or other audiences?

------------------------------
Larry Snyder
Professor
Lehigh University
Bethlehem PA
lvs2@lehigh.edu
------------------------------

Thanks for these great ideas, everyone!

------------------------------
Lawrence Snyder
Professor
Lehigh University
Bethlehem PA
lvs2@lehigh.edu
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 12-21-2022 09:57
From: Kathryn Walter
Subject: What games do you use in teaching?

Hi Larry,

I've done some explaining of concepts to colleagues, professional development students, Uber drivers who ask what I do and don't understand how I'm not an accountant, etc.

To explain the basic structure of a decision tree, I use Guess Who. People who have played this game usually have some decision-tree-like strategy they've found works best. To explain permutations, combinations, and shortest paths, I use Rubik's Cubes. I have yet to get tired of watching the disbelief when people hear how many ways you can make a standard 3x3 cube. If someone wants to learn about simulation and a computer is available, I use Google to find a Monte Hall Problem simulator.

Ticket to Ride is great for explaining optimization problems with nodes and arcs. But, someone needs to either be actively playing this game or very familiar with it to understand the optimization aspect. Similarly, Love Letter and Quacks of Quedlinburg are great for basic probability concepts, and any deck building game can illustrate data sampling. These games work for teaching OR concepts when people want to hear about them. I don't recommend anyone follows my example of going on tangents about the math in the game mechanics when setting them for a game night.

------------------------------
Kathryn Walter
Senior Operations Research Analyst
Avista Corp
Alexandria VA

Original Message:
Sent: 12-15-2022 10:53
From: Lawrence Snyder
Subject: What games do you use in teaching?

Karmel Shehadeh (Lehigh), Luis Novoa (JMU), and I are working on a paper about using the Burrito Optimization Game in classes to introduce students to optimization.

(I collaborated with Gurobi Optimization to develop the game. It's a free resource that anyone can use in learning about or teaching optimization. Players drag and drop burrito trucks onto a city map to serve customers. The goal is to maximize the total profit, and the player's solutions are compared side-by-side with optimal ones. It's a facility location problem -- but a player doesn't need to know anything about that to start playing the game. Rather, the idea is to teach them why they might want to use optimization. The game is a fun introduction to optimization, a demonstration of how math is applicable to real-world decisions, and evidence that optimization is difficult and that utilizing an algorithm is essential. I wrote a short article about the game earlier this year in OR/MS Today. You can play the game at http://burritooptimizationgame.com/.)

Anyway -- working on the paper with Karmel and Luis made me curious to hear from others: What games, apps, or other unconventional educational resources do you use with your students? Or, if you don't teach, do you use anything like this to inform and educate colleagues, clients, or other audiences?

------------------------------
Larry Snyder
Professor
Lehigh University
Bethlehem PA
lvs2@lehigh.edu
------------------------------

Thanks, everyone, for all these good ideas. I use the "Lean Enterprise Value Simulation Game" to teach basic manufacturing concepts. It was designed for more advanced students, but I have used it successfully with freshmen and sophomores to give them some familiarity with manufacturing challenges. They really enjoy the competition. I run it over three long class sessions and pair it with lectures that teach basic concepts. In 2020, for virtual teaching, I worked with the developer, Hugh McManus, to develop a similar online game in Minecraft!

Best,
Erica Gralla
George Washington University

------------------------------
Erica Gralla
Associate Professor
George Washington University
Washington DC
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 12-21-2022 13:40
From: Lawrence Snyder
Subject: What games do you use in teaching?

Thanks for these great ideas, everyone!

------------------------------
Lawrence Snyder
Professor
Lehigh University
Bethlehem PA
lvs2@lehigh.edu

Original Message:
Sent: 12-21-2022 09:57
From: Kathryn Walter
Subject: What games do you use in teaching?

Hi Larry,

I've done some explaining of concepts to colleagues, professional development students, Uber drivers who ask what I do and don't understand how I'm not an accountant, etc.

To explain the basic structure of a decision tree, I use Guess Who. People who have played this game usually have some decision-tree-like strategy they've found works best. To explain permutations, combinations, and shortest paths, I use Rubik's Cubes. I have yet to get tired of watching the disbelief when people hear how many ways you can make a standard 3x3 cube. If someone wants to learn about simulation and a computer is available, I use Google to find a Monte Hall Problem simulator.

Ticket to Ride is great for explaining optimization problems with nodes and arcs. But, someone needs to either be actively playing this game or very familiar with it to understand the optimization aspect. Similarly, Love Letter and Quacks of Quedlinburg are great for basic probability concepts, and any deck building game can illustrate data sampling. These games work for teaching OR concepts when people want to hear about them. I don't recommend anyone follows my example of going on tangents about the math in the game mechanics when setting them for a game night.

------------------------------
Kathryn Walter
Senior Operations Research Analyst
Avista Corp
Alexandria VA

Original Message:
Sent: 12-15-2022 10:53
From: Lawrence Snyder
Subject: What games do you use in teaching?

Karmel Shehadeh (Lehigh), Luis Novoa (JMU), and I are working on a paper about using the Burrito Optimization Game in classes to introduce students to optimization.

(I collaborated with Gurobi Optimization to develop the game. It's a free resource that anyone can use in learning about or teaching optimization. Players drag and drop burrito trucks onto a city map to serve customers. The goal is to maximize the total profit, and the player's solutions are compared side-by-side with optimal ones. It's a facility location problem -- but a player doesn't need to know anything about that to start playing the game. Rather, the idea is to teach them why they might want to use optimization. The game is a fun introduction to optimization, a demonstration of how math is applicable to real-world decisions, and evidence that optimization is difficult and that utilizing an algorithm is essential. I wrote a short article about the game earlier this year in OR/MS Today. You can play the game at http://burritooptimizationgame.com/.)

Anyway -- working on the paper with Karmel and Luis made me curious to hear from others: What games, apps, or other unconventional educational resources do you use with your students? Or, if you don't teach, do you use anything like this to inform and educate colleagues, clients, or other audiences?

------------------------------
Larry Snyder
Professor
Lehigh University
Bethlehem PA
lvs2@lehigh.edu
------------------------------

Dear all,
Thank you for these ideas.
In case you are looking for a different game in humanitarian logistics, Harwin de Vries and I just published a teaching case (https://www.thecasecentre.org/products/view?id=187915). It provides students with a close to real-life logistics experience in case of a disaster response. They play the role of the Logistics Cluster – a network of logistics experts who work together to coordinate logistics – in the aftermath of a fictitious disaster. Students face time-pressure, lack of information, contradicting needs of various stakeholders, and unforeseeable events that require an immediate change of course. Students learn by trial-and-error and through reflection upon mistakes. The case takes between 4 and 10 hours, depending on how the instructor wants to implement it, and consists of diverse steps/phases.

We used this case about 15 times in our own MSc and MBA teaching at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and Kuehne Logistic University and it is consistently listed as one of the highlights of our courses. No matter how many practitioners you bring in to discuss about real challenges that the humanitarian aid workers face, it is difficult for students to really feel how it is to respond to a disaster. Our case makes students experience those complexities and serves as a rich basis for reflection and learning.

The case is one of the first of its kind. Though disasters take place almost every day and there are trainings to prepare response teams; there are few academic teaching materials on humanitarian logistics. The case come together with a teaching note, which includes detailed descriptions of the roles and scripts of the facilitators, a detailed teaching plan and even the texts of the emails to be sent to the students during the simulation.

We hope it will be a useful tool in sessions/ courses on humanitarian logistics worldwide. Feel free to approach us if we can be of help in implementing this in your classes.

Best regards, 
Harwin and Maria



------------------------------
Maria Besiou
Professor of Humanitarian Logistics
Kuehne Logistics University
Hamburg
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 12-23-2022 09:47
From: Erica Gralla
Subject: What games do you use in teaching?

Thanks, everyone, for all these good ideas. I use the "Lean Enterprise Value Simulation Game" to teach basic manufacturing concepts. It was designed for more advanced students, but I have used it successfully with freshmen and sophomores to give them some familiarity with manufacturing challenges. They really enjoy the competition. I run it over three long class sessions and pair it with lectures that teach basic concepts. In 2020, for virtual teaching, I worked with the developer, Hugh McManus, to develop a similar online game in Minecraft!

Best,
Erica Gralla
George Washington University

------------------------------
Erica Gralla
Associate Professor
George Washington University
Washington DC

Original Message:
Sent: 12-21-2022 13:40
From: Lawrence Snyder
Subject: What games do you use in teaching?

Thanks for these great ideas, everyone!

------------------------------
Lawrence Snyder
Professor
Lehigh University
Bethlehem PA
lvs2@lehigh.edu

Original Message:
Sent: 12-21-2022 09:57
From: Kathryn Walter
Subject: What games do you use in teaching?

Hi Larry,

I've done some explaining of concepts to colleagues, professional development students, Uber drivers who ask what I do and don't understand how I'm not an accountant, etc.

To explain the basic structure of a decision tree, I use Guess Who. People who have played this game usually have some decision-tree-like strategy they've found works best. To explain permutations, combinations, and shortest paths, I use Rubik's Cubes. I have yet to get tired of watching the disbelief when people hear how many ways you can make a standard 3x3 cube. If someone wants to learn about simulation and a computer is available, I use Google to find a Monte Hall Problem simulator.

Ticket to Ride is great for explaining optimization problems with nodes and arcs. But, someone needs to either be actively playing this game or very familiar with it to understand the optimization aspect. Similarly, Love Letter and Quacks of Quedlinburg are great for basic probability concepts, and any deck building game can illustrate data sampling. These games work for teaching OR concepts when people want to hear about them. I don't recommend anyone follows my example of going on tangents about the math in the game mechanics when setting them for a game night.

------------------------------
Kathryn Walter
Senior Operations Research Analyst
Avista Corp
Alexandria VA

Original Message:
Sent: 12-15-2022 10:53
From: Lawrence Snyder
Subject: What games do you use in teaching?

Karmel Shehadeh (Lehigh), Luis Novoa (JMU), and I are working on a paper about using the Burrito Optimization Game in classes to introduce students to optimization.

(I collaborated with Gurobi Optimization to develop the game. It's a free resource that anyone can use in learning about or teaching optimization. Players drag and drop burrito trucks onto a city map to serve customers. The goal is to maximize the total profit, and the player's solutions are compared side-by-side with optimal ones. It's a facility location problem -- but a player doesn't need to know anything about that to start playing the game. Rather, the idea is to teach them why they might want to use optimization. The game is a fun introduction to optimization, a demonstration of how math is applicable to real-world decisions, and evidence that optimization is difficult and that utilizing an algorithm is essential. I wrote a short article about the game earlier this year in OR/MS Today. You can play the game at http://burritooptimizationgame.com/.)

Anyway -- working on the paper with Karmel and Luis made me curious to hear from others: What games, apps, or other unconventional educational resources do you use with your students? Or, if you don't teach, do you use anything like this to inform and educate colleagues, clients, or other audiences?

------------------------------
Larry Snyder
Professor
Lehigh University
Bethlehem PA
lvs2@lehigh.edu
------------------------------