Polygraph is a partnered guessing game, designed to foster the pleasure and power of words, and to develop informal language into formal vocabulary. Each round, players are matched into pairs and assigned Picker and Guesser roles. The Picker selects a card; the Guesser asks yes/no questions for the Picker to answer in order to narrow the field of cards down to one.

Each student plays a practice round against the computer to learn how the game works.

Next, students are paired with a classmate to play Polygraph with the activity’s actual cards.

Between rounds, students answer questions that focus their attention on vocabulary and strategy.

Students will be able to play by joining an activity containing a Polygraph. They’ll be able to enter the game from a Polygraph screen in the activity.

Students start off with a practice round against the computer, and then get paired with each other. Between games, students answer questions that focus their attention on vocabulary and strategy.

Students will continue getting randomly re-paired after each completed round, until you move the lesson forward.

Before students start, make sure they understand the premise of the game. We do not recommend playing the sample round with the class, as it is intended for students to try out individually. You could easily, however, play a low-tech version—show the array, pick your card, have students ask questions aloud, respond, etc.

The easiest way to test out Polygraph is to find a friend to play with you. Create a class code, give your friend the class code, and each of you can enter that at student.desmos.com. Your friend may be in the same room, down the hall, or halfway around the world—so long as the two of you are playing at the same time.

If you want to play on your own, you’ll need two browser tabs, and you’ll need to play the roles of two different students. After you create a class code as a teacher, go to student.desmos.com in each tab and enter the class code. Be sure to sign out on each tab so you don’t appear to be the same person in both tabs. Then just switch between the two tabs to play both sides of the game.

You’ll be able to watch your students’ matches by clicking into the Polygraph screen from the activity’s Teacher dashboard.

Check how many students are waiting for partners using the counter at the top of the page.

Click into an interstitial question to view the responses students have written.

Click on a pair’s game to view the entire round’s history.

We recommend Pacing students to the Polygraph screen in the activity. This will prevent students from moving ahead too quickly, and allow students to play multiple rounds.

There are a couple of ways you can wrap up a game of Polygraph in your activity. You can end it by playing a round against the class. Invite discussion of the ideas and strategies behind the questions your students ask.

As an alternative, you can use the Teacher dashboard to identify some interesting questions that students asked as they played. Bring these questions to the class’s attention, or showcase student thinking by highlighting student responses to the reflection questions between rounds. These might include use of vocabulary you want to introduce or examples of students noticing things about the suspects that most did not.

Once again, we recommend Pacing students past the Polygraph screen once you’ve chosen to continue with the remainder of the activity.

Learn more about including a Polygraph in a custom built activity.