Two teams, one grid. Answer a square to claim it. First to line up enough in a row wins.
In Google Sheets use File, then Share, then Publish to the web, and choose CSV.
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| Question? | Answer? | Image URL? | Topic? |
|---|
Pick from the swatches or use the square on the right for any colour you like. Faded swatches are already taken by the other team.
Give it more questions than squares and it deals them a boardful at a time. Twenty seven questions on a three by three grid is three full boards with nothing repeated. The top bar shows which set you are on.
Any AI tool can write these for you. Three steps.
You are writing a question set for a classroom "four in a row" board game.
Two teams take turns picking squares on a grid. Answering correctly claims the
square. The first team to line up enough squares in a row wins.
OUTPUT
Give me exactly one CSV code block and nothing else. No commentary above or
below it. The first line must be this header, unchanged:
question,answer,image,topic
COLUMNS
question What students see. May be blank only if there is an image.
answer What the host reveals. Short enough to read from across a classroom.
image A web address of a picture, or blank. Usually blank.
topic Optional short label shown above the question. Useful when one grid
mixes subjects. Blank is fine.
HOW MANY
Every square needs a question. Ask me the grid size if I have not said. A 6 by
7 grid needs 42, a 5 by 5 needs 25, a 3 by 3 needs 9.
CSV RULES THAT MATTER
Wrap any field containing a comma in double quotes.
Write a double quote inside a quoted field as two double quotes.
Do not add extra columns or reorder them.
MATH
Math is rendered by KaTeX. Write LaTeX between dollar signs, with SINGLE
backslashes. CSV needs no escaping of backslashes.
Inline: Simplify: $8 + 3 \times 4$ answer: $20$
Centered: Add: $$\frac{1}{3} + \frac{1}{4}$$ answer: $$\frac{7}{12}$$
Use $$ for anything with a fraction, a radical, or a tall expression.
Wrap bare numbers in dollar signs too, so digits render consistently.
Escape a literal dollar sign as \$ and a percent sign as \%, for example
$\$42$ and $35\%$.
Stick to \frac \times \div \le \ge \ne \pm \pi \approx \sqrt{} \text{} and
superscripts and subscripts. No align environments, no \newcommand.
WRITING GOOD QUESTIONS
Every square is worth the same, so keep the difficulty fairly even. A few
harder ones are fine, but avoid one square that decides the game.
Keep wording tight. Long questions shrink on screen and are hard to read from
the back of the room.
Every question must have exactly one defensible answer, because the host
settles disputes live in front of a class.
The subject does not have to be math. Mixed review, vocabulary, history, and
science all work.
EXAMPLE OF THE EXPECTED SHAPE
question,answer,image,topic
Simplify: $8 + 3 \times 4$,$20$,,Order of operations
Add: $$\frac{1}{3} + \frac{1}{4}$$,$$\frac{7}{12}$$,,Fractions
"A $\$60$ jacket is marked down $30\%$, find the sale price.",$\$42$,,Percent
What is the capital of Australia?,Canberra,,Trivia
Wait for my next message before writing anything.
Check what comes back before class. AI tools get the math right most of the time but not every time, and the builder tab here shows a live preview of each question.
| The idea | One question per square. There is no scoring by points, so a question does not need a value. You just need enough questions to cover the grid. |
| CSV columns | question, answer, image, topic. Only question and answer are required, and question may be blank if there is an image. |
$ ... $ | Inline math. Simplify $3 + 4 \times 5$ |
$$ ... $$ | Math on its own centered line, good for fractions and long expressions. |
\frac{3}{4} | Fractions. Also \times \div \le \ge \ne \pi \sqrt{} and x^2. |
| Backslashes | Strict JSON needs every backslash doubled. Leave the box in the Paste text tab checked and you can type them singly. |
| Images | Paste any picture address in the image column. Google Drive share links are converted automatically, but the file has to be shared as "anyone with the link". |
| Topic | Optional. It shows in small type above the question, useful if you mix subjects. |
| How many | One per square is the minimum. A 6 by 7 grid wants 42. Supply more and they are dealt a boardful at a time, so 84 questions gives you two full boards with nothing repeated. |
| Taking a turn | The team highlighted at the top picks any open square. Read the question, then reveal the answer. |
| Getting it right | Press the button with that team's name and the square turns their color. |
| Getting it wrong | Press the other team's button and they steal the square. Press Nobody and the square goes dead, blocking both teams. |
| Turn order | Play alternates after every square, however it was settled. |
| Space | Show the answer |
| 1 and 2 | Give the square to team one or team two |
| 0 | Nobody gets it |
| T | Start or stop the timer |
| F | Full screen on or off |
| + - | Resize the question text. 0 is blocked here since it means nobody, so use the slider in the top bar. |
| Esc | Back to the board without settling the square |
| Undo a square | Alt-click any claimed or dead square to open it back up. |
| More questions than squares | They are dealt a boardful at a time. The top bar shows Set 2 of 3 and the button reads Next 9 questions. Nothing repeats until the pool runs out, then it reshuffles and starts the cycle again. |
| Fewer questions than squares | It plays anyway and repeats some. The top bar says so. |
| Start over | Start the questions over in Setup reshuffles the whole pool and goes back to the first set. |