Pari for classes, clubs and teams

Eight ways a room uses it

A market is just a question with a deadline and two to ten answers. That turns out to be useful far more often than once a week.

• 01HOOK

  The attention hook

  Open with a question nobody can look up. Everyone has skin in the game before you have said a word about the topic, and they listen differently for the next forty minutes.

  For instance“Does the balloon pop before the count of ten?”

  Several a day, not one a week.

  60 seconds

• 02REVEAL

  Before the reveal

  Predict the experiment before you run it. The next chapter before you read it. What the graph does next. What the source actually says. This is the teaching core: a guess you committed to is a guess you remember being wrong about.

  For instance“Which liquid dissolves it fastest: vinegar, water or oil?”

  Sealed by default, so nobody can copy the room.

  one lesson

• 03PLANNING

  Planning and decisions

  How long will this project really take? How many of us finish by Friday? Which of these three trips do we pick? What will the bake sale actually raise? Afterwards the room sees exactly how wrong the plan was, which is the part nobody usually gets to see.

  For instance“How many of us hand the project in by Friday: under 10, 10 to 20, or everyone?”

  Forecasting as a planning instrument, not a quiz.

  days to weeks

• 04LIVE

  Live events

  Sports day, a match, a rocket launch, the talent show, whether it stays dry for the trip. Put the board on the projector and let it move while everyone watches.

  For instance“Does it stay dry until the end of sports day?”

  The board reads from the back of a hall.

  minutes to hours

• 05SEASON

  Season arcs

  A class board, or a whole-school one, running for six to eight weeks. Streaks for turning up. The thing that improves over a term is calibration, and you can watch it improve.

  For instance“Who in 7B is best calibrated by half term?”

  A term is a season.

  a term

• 06TEAMS

  Teams against teams

  Tables against tables, houses against houses, class against class. And the benchmark that keeps everyone honest: the room against the pool, which is the average of everyone’s guesses and is harder to beat than it sounds.

  For instance“Red table or Blue table: who is closer this week?”

  Aggregates first, because most individuals are provisional for most of a term.

  ongoing

• 07STUDENT RUN

  Run by the students

  Kids propose their own questions into a queue. The adult approves, edits or sends one back with a note, and nothing reaches the room until they do. Student government, the school paper, clubs, the chess team.

  For instance“Does the new canteen menu pass the student vote?”

  Questions naming a person are refused before an adult ever reads them.

  ongoing

• 08BEYOND

  Outside school entirely

  A scout troop, a Sunday league squad, a summer camp, an after-school club, a family at the dinner table. None of this needs a teacher, a curriculum or a timetable — only somebody willing to ask and somebody willing to answer.

  For instance“Do we finish the hike before it gets dark?”

  No curriculum required.

  any

What a round looks like

1. 01

   Ask

   Pick a template or type a question. Two to ten answers and a time it locks — the bell, the end of the match, Friday.

2. 02

   Everyone commits

   Each person spreads their points across the answers. Change your mind as often as you like until it locks. Nobody can see anybody else’s spread.

3. 03

   Lock

   At the deadline it closes and the room’s combined forecast appears. That number is the thing to beat.

4. 04

   Result

   Whoever resolves it posts the evidence with it, and the room has a full school day to argue before it is final.

5. 05

   The receipt

   Everyone gets their own: your call, the room’s call, what happened, and how close you were. This is the bit that teaches.

The rail scrolls sideways — 5 steps in all.

The rest of the safety answer

• ·No student email, no password, no wallet. A generated handle like `swift-otter` and a six-character join code, the way a quiz app does it.
• ·The map from a handle to a real name lives only in the school’s own roster, and it is not in the export.
• ·Questions that name a person are rejected at creation. The adult is told it happened; the room never sees the text.
• ·A result can be argued for a full school day before it becomes final — not an hour.
• ·What a teacher can export: handle, rounds taken part in, rounds resolved, and a score band. Never a balance, never a ranking, never a position.
• ·Nothing is ever sold to a student. No points, no advantage, no cosmetic, no advertising. There is no payment path from a kid to us, in the product or in the program.