The VANG Game: Transforming Math Education through Equity and Excellence

I think I speak for a lot of people when I say that math class can be a stressful time. Getting called on unexpectedly, complicated equations, and uncertain answers leave many of us feeling overwhelmed. Many kids and adults alike experience this anxiety around math.

Dr. Pamela Seda, a retired math educator, has set out to change this. Her aim is to make math concepts fun and accessible to people of all ages and ethnicities through her VANG Game.

The VANG game teaches math concepts in a fun and easily accessible way.

The game originated during her time as an instructional coach assigned to help math teachers. She was seeing a lot of high school students that were missing key skills and concepts. What she found  was that they could not be taught in the usual way. To teach them as if they were back in elementary school left the students feeling as if  it was beneath them, and made them feel stupid.  So, she created the VANG game as a way to practice important math concepts in a collaborative way. By making it a game, the students had fun, but more importantly, retained the concepts. 

One thing Pam loves seeing is how engaged the children are.

It makes her happy to see them do the mental work to engage with the math concepts in a real-world way.

Part of her work as well is overcoming the stigma and stereotypes about Black students in math. Unfortunately, racial stereotypes  are still a barrier for many Black students when it comes to math and other key subjects. Her work seeks to overcome that by engaging the students in a way that is both impactful and long-lasting. The students carry these lessons with them, and allow them to be confident in future math classes. 

The concepts surrounding the game are based on her doctoral work in 2007.

From that doctoral work, she went on to co-author a book, Choosing to See: A Framework for Equity in the Math Classroom in the year 2021. To date, Pam and her co-author Kyndall Brown have sold over 15,000 copies!

The VANG Game is featured in the book under the chapter Release Control, meaning book sales and sales of the game often go hand in hand. Partly due to the success of her book, Pam is now a well accredited public speaker and often gives talks about math equity in education. She takes games with her, and often features the VANG Game in her speeches!

A key component of her presentations is her ICUCARE™ (pronounced “I See You Care”) framework. Each letter represents a  principle of equity in the classroom. 

Pam mentioned that she finds introducing the game to adults joyful as well.

A lot of the educators she worked with had anxieties about algebra, as they had not practiced in a long time. She could see those anxieties crop up, just like when they were kids in a math class. However, through playing the VANG game, they were able to let go of that and just enjoy playing the game. She really enjoys seeing the light bulbs go off in their heads as they play the correct cards. She recalled one colleague in particular who said he was “terrible at math in the past, but really enjoyed playing the VANG Game.”

Part of the joy of the VANG game is that it reframes math in a fun and accessible way to people. They are able to look at it as playing a game rather than doing complex math calculations.

The graphs, tables, equations, and word problems connect them to the real world rather than the abstract. In that way, it allows people to gain a better grasp on the concept.

When speaking with Pam, she recalled one instance  of playing the game with her late mother.

Her mom came from a time when algebra was not required, so she had never been taught those concepts. Wanting to support her daughter though, she agreed to play. Pam said her mom felt intimidated at first, but soon picked up the concepts easily. Pam remembers seeing that sense of pride wash over her mom as she exclaimed “oh! I figured this out!.” That sense of pride and joy is something that cannot be gained by giving someone step-by-step instructions. It just is not the same as the person making those connections for themselves. Seeing her mom think through the concepts and feel that sense of pride is a cherished memory for Pam.

The VANG game had humble origins.

Her advice for all card creators looking to make a product is to start with a mockup. “Don’t be afraid to make your own demo and get it in the hands of people.” Oh, and “make sure it’s accurate!” The very first person to buy her deck asked, “there are no errors, right?” Because of all the playtesting and demoing she had done, Pam confidently answered “no, there are no errors.” She said market research is very key when creating a product. Get your game in the hands of kids, adults, and everyone in between. This will allow you to tweak and improve.

The very first set of cards was created in her home from a Word document,  printed on sheets of cardstock that were then cut out and laminated. She painstakingly created a set of cards for each teacher that she worked with.

There was one problem though – when the teachers left the school, they took the cards with them.

This necessitated doing the process all over again, so she started looking for vendors. At first, no one was able to assist. Then, one day at Universal Studios (the Minions area specifically) she saw personalized Minion playing cards. A light bulb went off, she realized someone had to be making these. Then, one day at a wedding, someone had personalized playing cards. She thought back to the Minion cards and went online that night. A Google search for “personalized playing cards” brought up a list of vendors,  and she finally had someone to help make her game. From there, she tried out a couple of different companies. However, there was one hurdle – the quality was not up to her liking. 

Then, she found Shuffled Ink way back in 2015.

She took a chance on us and loved the quality of our work. We have been printing her cards ever since. At the time she only had two versions of her game, but has since added three more. Shuffled Ink is the proud producer of all five – Quadratic Functions, Linear Relationships, Linear Functions, Integer Operations, and Fraction Operations. Three of those have recently been upgraded with brand-new designs. There is a new logo, branding, and color scheme.

Pam actually had a tour of our facility while on vacation with her family.

It is important to her that her games be made in the USA, so she stopped by while on vacation in Orlando to see how we do things. She and her family had a tour of the facility, and saw exactly how her cards are made.  She remembers how excited her kids were to see everything. Our owner and founder, Charles, also spoke with her for a while about the processes. Which, now that we are in our new building, is something we love doing! We have clients stop in all the time to get a tour of the facility. 

Part of what Pam loves about Shuffled Ink is how helpful everyone is.

 From the sales staff to the graphic design team, she said everyone has always been super friendly and helpful. She has worked with one graphic artist in all her time with us, Chris Cusa. When speaking, she said that she “always appreciates Chris’ help improving her game through the years.” 

 For her latest order, we actually were out of the usual hard clear plastic cases she orders. The sales staff recommended the wavy hard clear plastic cases instead, and Pam couldn’t be happier with the switch! She said her husband was most excited to see them, as he does all of the unpacking.

Pam runs her business very similarly to Shuffled Ink’s, mostly in the sense that it is a full family affair.

 Her husband does all of the fulfillment. Packing the orders, receiving new shipments, and even doing quality control. One of her daughters is both an architect and graphic artist, and creates all of the designs for the VANG game. Her other daughter works as Pam’s assistant in running the business and her son edits her company videos. Her youngest daughter currently works as a teacher, but Pam joked that she will find a way to include her in the business as well.

Looking to get your hands on the VANG game?

Pam currently sells her cards on her website website  and through  Nasco Educational Supply

In fact, The VANG Game is one of Nasco’s top sellers. She said her new versions are always accepted and placed in their catalogs.

You can find the VANG Game and all 5 versions through her website or by ordering through Nasco’s catalog

You can also find more information about her book here: Choosing to See

Looking for socials? Check out Pam’s  Instagram and X accounts 

If you are a current client and interested in being featured on our blog, please reach out to social@shuffledink.com for more details.