↑y
x→
One shared board. Call a coordinate, answer a question, take the shot. Sink the most ships to win.
In Google Sheets use File, then Share, then Publish to the web, and choose CSV.
You can also add ?game=ADDRESS to this page's own address to bookmark a set.
Copy your rows out of Excel, Google Sheets, or Numbers. Click the first cell below and press Ctrl+V, or Cmd+V on a Mac. A header row is detected and skipped automatically.
| Question? | Answer? | Image URL? | Topic? |
|---|
Pick from the swatches or use the square on the right for any colour you like.
The board is a full coordinate plane, so students call shots as ordered pairs like (−3, 2) and have to get the signs right for the quadrant. Odd boards put a real origin in the middle square with the axes running through it. Even boards have no zero, so the numbers jump from −1 to 1 and the axes fall between squares, which keeps every square inside a quadrant. Ships are placed at random every game. Use Peek at fleet in the top bar to check the board before you project it.
One file holds everything on this screen: your questions, both team names and colours, the board size, the timer, and the sound settings. Build it at home, bring the one file in, and there is nothing to set up again.
Any AI tool can write these for you. Three steps.
You are writing a question set for a classroom "sink the ship" review game.
Two teams share one grid. A team calls a coordinate, answers a question, and if
they get it right they fire at that square. Sinking the most ships 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 beside the coordinate. Blank is fine.
HOW MANY
Questions are dealt one per shot, not one per square. A game runs roughly 20 to
40 shots, so 30 is a good number for one class period. Ask me if unsure.
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 $$ for anything with a fraction, a radical, or a tall expression.
Wrap bare numbers in dollar signs too, so digits render consistently.
Escape a literal dollar sign as \$ and a percent sign as \%, for example
$\$42$ and $35\%$.
Stick to \frac \times \div \le \ge \ne \pm \pi \approx \sqrt{} \text{} and
superscripts and subscripts. No align environments, no \newcommand.
WRITING GOOD QUESTIONS
Every shot is worth the same, so keep the difficulty fairly even.
Keep wording tight. Long questions shrink on screen and are hard to read from
the back of the room.
Every question must have exactly one defensible answer, because the host
settles disputes live in front of a class.
The subject does not have to be math. Mixed review, vocabulary, history, and
science all work.
EXAMPLE OF THE EXPECTED SHAPE
question,answer,image,topic
Simplify: $8 + 3 \times 4$,$20$,,Order of operations
Add: $$\frac{1}{3} + \frac{1}{4}$$,$$\frac{7}{12}$$,,Fractions
"A $\$60$ jacket is marked down $30\%$, find the sale price.",$\$42$,,Percent
What is the capital of Australia?,Canberra,,Trivia
Wait for my next message before writing anything.
Check what comes back before class. The builder tab here shows a live preview of each question.
| The idea | One question per shot. Questions are dealt from a pool as the game goes, so you need roughly as many as the number of shots you expect, not one per square. |
| How many | A game usually runs 20 to 40 shots. Thirty questions is plenty for one class. If the pool runs out it reshuffles and keeps going. |
| CSV columns | question, answer, image, topic. Only question and answer are required, and question may be blank if there is an image. |
$ ... $ | Inline math. Simplify $3 + 4 \times 5$ |
$$ ... $$ | 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". |
| Reuse | A question file written for Four in a Row works here without changes. |
| Before you project | Press Peek at fleet to see where the ships landed. A red bar warns you while peeking. Press it again to hide them. |
| Reading it | The gold x with an arrow sits under the board and the gold y with an arrow sits beside it, so students can see which set of numbers is which. Call the across number first, then the up number. |
| The board | A full coordinate plane. x runs left to right, y runs bottom to top, and the axes are picked out in gold. Students call shots as ordered pairs like (−3, 2). |
| Odd or even | An odd board (5, 7, 9, 11, 13) has a real origin in the centre square and squares that sit on the axes. An even board (4, 6, 8, 10, 12) has no zero, so the numbers jump from −1 to 1 and every square lands in a quadrant. Even boards are the better drill if you only want the four quadrants. Odd boards are better if you want students dealing with zero and points on an axis. |
| Taking a turn | The highlighted team calls an ordered pair and you click that square. The question screen shows the coordinate and which quadrant it is in. |
| Getting it right | Press that team's button. The shot is fired and you find out hit or miss. |
| Getting it wrong | Press the other team's button and they steal the shot at that same square. Press Nobody and no shot is fired, so the square stays open. |
| Turn order | Play alternates after every question, however it was settled. |
| Sinking a ship | Whoever lands the final hit gets credit for the ship. The roster on the right shows who sank what. |
| Winning | The game ends when every ship is down. Most ships sunk wins, and hits break a tie. |
| Space | Show the answer |
| 1 and 2 | Give the shot to team one or team two |
| 0 | Nobody gets it, no shot fired |
| T | Start or stop the timer, which also starts and stops the music |
| M | Start or stop the music by hand |
| P | Peek at the fleet |
| F | Full screen on or off |
| Esc | Back to the board without firing |
| Fix a square | Alt-click any square that has been shot to clear it back to open water. |