Using a teamgame to check understanding and improve learning

This is a game I played at the end of my Berlin Wall week with a beginner Yr 9 class.  We had been learning big numbers, but this could work with anything.  It's not a new idea, it's a tweak on stepping stones and other games, but I liked the way it worked.

The pupils had to get from "west" to "east".  They were divided up  into 2 teams, and the winners were the first team to get across.  The only way through was to get past the 8 guards (4 per team) by answering the question they had on their cards - these got progressively more difficult as they went on.  If they got the answer wrong, they were sent to "erste Hilfe" (first aid) with the explanations & reminders of the key points before they tried again.  Once they had got over the excitement of playing a game, it worked a treat.  The "guards" were suitably strict, and the boys hurried back to check the erste Hilfe.  I had to do relatively little, and the successful ones had the task of making up the biggest number they could.

What was interesting was that it had successfully helped to iron out misunderstandings, and once back in the classroom, the pupils were able to tell me which rules they needed to remember, and they used them in the subsequent exercises. I think the key to success, apart from the competition element, was the "erste Hilfe" section, where they could get their information and improving their understanding.  They then did a very standard information gap partner work exercise to get some key dates of events, then created a timeline.