Scope and sequence · Games & Sports
Game Theory: Choosing When Others Choose
A one-semester elective for grades 8–12. Pre-algebra is required.
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What to cover
30 of 30 lessons are MUST COVER. Do them in order. The course is complete when these lessons and the unit tests are done.
Unit 1: The Book That Started a Science
- MUST COVER 1.1 What Makes Something a Game?
- MUST COVER 1.2 Before 1944: Zermelo’s Chess and Borel’s Bluff
- MUST COVER 1.3 Johnny von Neumann
- MUST COVER 1.4 Morgenstern, Holmes and Moriarty
- MUST COVER 1.5 Princeton, 1944: Writing the Book
Unit 2: Rational Choice and Utility
- MUST COVER 2.1 Ranking Your Choices: What “Rational” Means
- MUST COVER 2.2 From Ranking to Numbers: The Lottery Trick
- MUST COVER 2.3 Expected Utility and Its Rules
- MUST COVER 2.4 When Real People Don’t Fit: Allais (1953)
- MUST COVER 2.5 Rationality and the Whole Person
Unit 3: Two-Person Games Revisited: Trees, Tables, and Mixing
- MUST COVER 3.1 Minimax Trees by Hand
- MUST COVER 3.2 Dominance: Shrinking a Game
- MUST COVER 3.3 The Battle of the Bismarck Sea, 1943, as a Matrix
- MUST COVER 3.4 Pure vs. Mixed: The Matching-Pennies Tally
- MUST COVER 3.5 Hidden Information: Kriegspiel
Unit 4: Coalitions: The Book’s Big New Idea
- MUST COVER 4.1 Three’s a Crowd: Why Coalitions Form
- MUST COVER 4.2 The Characteristic Function: What Can a Team Guarantee?
- MUST COVER 4.3 Stable Sets
- MUST COVER 4.4 Fair Shares by Contribution: The Shapley Value (1953)
- MUST COVER 4.5 An Ancient Puzzle: The Talmud’s Garment and Estate
Unit 5: Fair Division and Bargaining
- MUST COVER 5.1 I Cut, You Choose
- MUST COVER 5.2 Dividing Chores (Bad Goods)
- MUST COVER 5.3 Bargaining: Splitting the Gains (Nash, 1950)
- MUST COVER 5.4 Take It or Leave It, and Taking Turns
- MUST COVER 5.5 Solomon’s Test as Mechanism Design
Unit 6: Markets, Auctions, and the Legacy
- MUST COVER 6.1 Markets as Games: The Horse Market
- MUST COVER 6.2 Auctions: English, Dutch, Sealed, and Second-Price
- MUST COVER 6.3 RAND and the Cold War
- MUST COVER 6.4 Game Theory at Work: Business and Government
- MUST COVER 6.5 Capstone: Design, Play, and Solve Your Own Game
Pacing calendar
From the course’s own pacing guide.
| Week | Plan | Done | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wk 1 | Day 1: Lesson 1.1 What Makes Something a Game?: teaching and worked examples Day 2: Lesson 1.1: project and scorebook Day 3: Lesson 1.1: practice set and corrections Day 4: Lesson 1.2 Before 1944: Zermelo’s Chess and Borel’s Bluff: teaching and worked examples Day 5: Lesson 1.2: project and scorebook | ||
| Wk 2 | Day 1: Lesson 1.2: practice set and corrections Day 2: Lesson 1.3 Johnny von Neumann: teaching and worked examples Day 3: Lesson 1.3: project and scorebook Day 4: Lesson 1.3: practice set and corrections Day 5: Lesson 1.4 Morgenstern, Holmes and Moriarty: teaching and worked examples | ||
| Wk 3 | Day 1: Lesson 1.4: project and scorebook Day 2: Lesson 1.4: practice set and corrections Day 3: Lesson 1.5 Princeton, 1944: Writing the Book: teaching and worked examples Day 4: Lesson 1.5: project and scorebook Day 5: Lesson 1.5: practice set and corrections | ||
| Wk 4 | Day 1: Unit 1 test Day 2: Lesson 2.1 Ranking Your Choices: What “Rational” Means: teaching and worked examples Day 3: Lesson 2.1: project and scorebook Day 4: Lesson 2.1: practice set and corrections Day 5: Lesson 2.2 From Ranking to Numbers: The Lottery Trick: teaching and worked examples | ||
| Wk 5 | Day 1: Lesson 2.2: project and scorebook Day 2: Lesson 2.2: practice set and corrections Day 3: Lesson 2.3 Expected Utility and Its Rules: teaching and worked examples Day 4: Lesson 2.3: project and scorebook Day 5: Lesson 2.3: practice set and corrections | ||
| Wk 6 | Day 1: Lesson 2.4 When Real People Don’t Fit: Allais (1953): teaching and worked examples Day 2: Lesson 2.4: project and scorebook Day 3: Lesson 2.4: practice set and corrections Day 4: Lesson 2.5 Rationality and the Whole Person: teaching and worked examples Day 5: Lesson 2.5: project and scorebook | ||
| Wk 7 | Day 1: Lesson 2.5: practice set and corrections Day 2: Unit 2 test Day 3: Lesson 3.1 Minimax Trees by Hand: teaching and worked examples Day 4: Lesson 3.1: project and scorebook Day 5: Lesson 3.1: practice set and corrections | ||
| Wk 8 | Day 1: Lesson 3.2 Dominance: Shrinking a Game: teaching and worked examples Day 2: Lesson 3.2: project and scorebook Day 3: Lesson 3.2: practice set and corrections Day 4: Lesson 3.3 The Battle of the Bismarck Sea, 1943, as a Matrix: teaching and worked examples Day 5: Lesson 3.3: project and scorebook | ||
| Wk 9 | Day 1: Lesson 3.3: practice set and corrections Day 2: Lesson 3.4 Pure vs. Mixed: The Matching-Pennies Tally: teaching and worked examples Day 3: Lesson 3.4: project and scorebook Day 4: Lesson 3.4: practice set and corrections Day 5: Lesson 3.5 Hidden Information: Kriegspiel: teaching and worked examples | ||
| Wk 10 | Day 1: Lesson 3.5: project and scorebook Day 2: Lesson 3.5: practice set and corrections Day 3: Unit 3 test Day 4: Midterm exam, covering Units 1–3 Day 5: Lesson 4.1 Three’s a Crowd: Why Coalitions Form: teaching and worked examples | ||
| Wk 11 | Day 1: Lesson 4.1: project and scorebook Day 2: Lesson 4.1: practice set and corrections Day 3: Lesson 4.2 The Characteristic Function: What Can a Team Guarantee?: teaching and worked examples Day 4: Lesson 4.2: project and scorebook Day 5: Lesson 4.2: practice set and corrections | ||
| Wk 12 | Day 1: Lesson 4.3 Stable Sets: teaching and worked examples Day 2: Lesson 4.3: project and scorebook Day 3: Lesson 4.3: practice set and corrections Day 4: Lesson 4.4 Fair Shares by Contribution: The Shapley Value (1953): teaching and worked examples Day 5: Lesson 4.4: project and scorebook | ||
| Wk 13 | Day 1: Lesson 4.4: practice set and corrections Day 2: Lesson 4.5 An Ancient Puzzle: The Talmud’s Garment and Estate: teaching and worked examples Day 3: Lesson 4.5: project and scorebook Day 4: Lesson 4.5: practice set and corrections Day 5: Unit 4 test | ||
| Wk 14 | Day 1: Lesson 5.1 I Cut, You Choose: teaching and worked examples Day 2: Lesson 5.1: project and scorebook Day 3: Lesson 5.1: practice set and corrections Day 4: Lesson 5.2 Dividing Chores (Bad Goods): teaching and worked examples Day 5: Lesson 5.2: project and scorebook | ||
| Wk 15 | Day 1: Lesson 5.2: practice set and corrections Day 2: Lesson 5.3 Bargaining: Splitting the Gains (Nash, 1950): teaching and worked examples Day 3: Lesson 5.3: project and scorebook Day 4: Lesson 5.3: practice set and corrections Day 5: Lesson 5.4 Take It or Leave It, and Taking Turns: teaching and worked examples | ||
| Wk 16 | Day 1: Lesson 5.4: project and scorebook Day 2: Lesson 5.4: practice set and corrections Day 3: Lesson 5.5 Solomon’s Test as Mechanism Design: teaching and worked examples Day 4: Lesson 5.5: project and scorebook Day 5: Lesson 5.5: practice set and corrections | ||
| Wk 17 | Day 1: Unit 5 test Day 2: Lesson 6.1 Markets as Games: The Horse Market: teaching and worked examples Day 3: Lesson 6.1: project and scorebook Day 4: Lesson 6.1: practice set and corrections Day 5: Lesson 6.2 Auctions: English, Dutch, Sealed, and Second-Price: teaching and worked examples | ||
| Wk 18 | Day 1: Lesson 6.2: project and scorebook Day 2: Lesson 6.2: practice set and corrections Day 3: Lesson 6.3 RAND and the Cold War: teaching and worked examples Day 4: Lesson 6.3: project and scorebook Day 5: Lesson 6.3: practice set and corrections | ||
| Wk 19 | Day 1: Lesson 6.4 Game Theory at Work: Business and Government: teaching and worked examples Day 2: Lesson 6.4: project and scorebook Day 3: Lesson 6.4: practice set and corrections Day 4: Lesson 6.5 Capstone: Design, Play, and Solve Your Own Game: teaching and worked examples Day 5: Lesson 6.5: project and scorebook | ||
| Wk 20 | Day 1: Lesson 6.5: practice set and corrections Day 2: Unit 6 test Day 3: Review for the final Day 4: Final exam Day 5: Catch-up, corrections, or a family game from this unit |
Grading: Grades come from the practice sets, the projects, the scorebook, the six unit tests, the midterm, and the final. A project earns full credit for an honest record, including a plan that failed, when the student says why. Scale: A 90–100, B 80–89, C 70–79, D 60–69, F below 60.