If you ask students why they love MobyMax, don’t get mad if they say it’s because “it’s all fun and games.” That’s exactly what Moby Contests aim to be—and why MobyMax is such a success.

Moby Contests put the fun in learning by using competitions to keep students motivated. Students compete against their classmates, or classrooms compete against each other. Some contests are simply about a student competing against themselves. No matter which way they’re designed, contests and the games they revolve around make learning so much fun that students may not even realize that’s what they’re doing.

Just about any kind of contest works. Want to organize a math showdown to get students competing to learn more problems? Let’s start multiplying! Want to focus on getting your students to master the parts of speech? Moby will see your verb and raise you two adjectives.

Teachers can design a contest using any of the 27 K-8 subjects Moby to design a contest around. The process takes only two minutes to set up! Teachers come up with a variety of simple prizes and rewards that can recognize one or multiple winners, depending on the contest. Some students are happy if they rack up winning stickers. Whole classrooms might do so well that they earn a pizza party. Some contests are so much fun that teachers use them to keep students learning all summer long (which is how teacher Christopher Godshall got 156 students to pass a total of 2,740 math standards, 725 language standards, and 227 science standards during summer vacation!) 

Want more information? Start by seeing what kind of contests other teachers are running. Get the basics here. Then read about how McKitrick Elementary in Florida used a contest to get third graders to complete an amazing 2 million problems! 

Want to create your own MobyMax classroom contest? Here’s how to do it in 2 minutes or less.

1. Sign in to your teacher account and click “Engagement.”
2. Click “Contests.”
3. Click "Create Contest."
4. Name your contest. For example, call it the MobyMax (Subject name) Challenge.

5. Enter your start and end date.
6. Select a subject.
7. Choose whether you’d like to see results based on time or points.”
8. Determine your awards.