Dashing States™ Level 3-4

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Cards Used: GeoPlunge Map cards, Answer key. There is only one state in red on each Map card. Shuffle the cards before the game begins and after each race.

Players: Two teams with 1, 2, or 3 players per team

Level 3:

Objective: Dashing States™ is a series of races! For each race, each team tries to, as quickly as it can, determine the identity of the states in red on 6 of its 7 Map cards (or all 7 Map cards if it wants to try to earn a bonus point) so that it can sort those cards in the manner described below, and the first team to do so then announces the required information for those states as also described below . A team earns 2 points for winning a race, and it also has an opportunity to earn a bonus point (i.e., a third point) as described in these rules. Teams receive 1 point each when a race ends in a tie. A team needs 15 points to win the game.

• Races 1, 4, 7, etc: The map cards used by a team must be placed in alphabetical order by state name. The first team to do this must then announce both the state names and capitals of those states.
• Race 2, 5, 8, etc: The map cards used by a team must be placed in alphabetical order by the name of the state capitals. The first team to do this must then announce both the state names and capitals of those states.
• Race 3, 6, 9, etc: The map cards used by a team must be placed in order of statehood rank. The first team to do this must then announce both the state names and statehood rankings of those states.

For each race:

Step 1: Deal each team 7 Map cards face-down. Teams do NOT turn over or look at their cards until everyone at the same time says, “Ready, Set, GeoPlunge!”

Step 2: The teams then turn over their cards and the race begins. Each team tries to place 6 of its 7 states in order as described in the objective and then shout “GeoPlunge!” The unused card must be turned face-down before shouting GeoPlunge. However, if a team is seeking the bonus point it should place all 7 of its cards in the order as described in the objective before shouting GeoPlunge and in that instance it does not have an unused card.

Step 3:The first team to sort the Map cards it is using in order as described above, and then shout GeoPlunge, must then correctly announce the information described in the objective as follows:

• 1 Player on a team: That person announces all of the information.
• 2 Players on a team: Each player on that team announces all of the information for 3 of the cards WITHOUT help from his/her teammate, as follows: the player on the left must announce the information for the 3 cards that are most to the left, and the player on the right must announce the information for the 3 cards that are most to the right.
• 3 Players on a team: Each player on that team announces all of the information on 2 of the 6 map cards WITHOUT help from his/her teammates, as follows: the player on the left must announce the information for the 2 cards that are most to the left, the player in the middle must announce the information for the 2 cards in the middle, and the player on the right must announce the information for the 2 cards that are most to the right.

Determining Who Wins a Race and Whether that Team Receives a Bonus Point: The first team to shout GeoPlunge wins the race and gets 2 points if it:

1. before shouting, it has correctly placed its 6 states in order as described in the objective, and
2. before shouting, it turned its unused card face-down, and
3. after shouting, each member of the team correctly announced the information as described in the objective, WITHOUT help from his/her teammates, in the manner described in Step 3.

Otherwise, the other team wins the race and receives the 2 points. If the first team to shout GeoPlunge is also seeking the bonus point, it needs to do everything right with respect to all 7 of its Map cards. In that instance, if there is more than one player on that team, any player on that team is permitted to announce the required information for the seventh Map card. If that team does everything right, it wins that race and earns 3 points. If not, the other team wins that race and receives 2 points.

Level 4:

Level 4 is the same as Level 3, with the following exceptions:

• For races 3, 6, 9, etc, before the race begins, turn over the top Power card in that deck. The category listed on that Power card indicates how the Map cards used by a team must be sorted. In the example, right, each team would sort the cards it is using by population ranking. The first team to sort the cards it is using and shout GeoPlunge would then announce both the state names and the rankings of those states in the category that was used for sorting. For example, if the category was population, the first team to sort the cards it is using and shout GeoPlunge must then announce both the state names and the population rankings of those states.

Other variations to the game you may want to try:

• Play for a different point total
• Play for a period of time rather than for a point total, and whoever is winning at the end of that period of time wins
• Instead of shuffling the cards after each race, place the cards that were just used at the bottom of the deck. Shuffle the deck as needed.
• Only use cards of specific regions (e.g., only states that are primarily in the eastern or central time zone)
• Change the number of cards used in the game or the number of cards that need to be placed in alphabetical order (e.g., deal out 6 cards and have teams alphabetize and identify only 4 of them)
• See “Other Learning Activities Using GeoPlunge” documents

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