I Tried to Ben Wyatt My Band Class... and It Imploded

Parks and Rec is my all time favorite TV show. As every stereotypical millennial does, I watch it on repeat. It is literally the only reason I pay for my Peacock subscription every month. If you have seen the show you know that Ben Wyatt's greatest creation is not his spreadsheets or his Star Trek fan fiction, it is the Cones of Dunshire- a wildly complex board game that no one asked for. It's a game so elaborate that even he can barely explain it. Honestly? That's the way I felt when we tried gamification in the band hall this year. Inspired by the promise of points, leaderboards, shout outs, and silly prizes, I rolled the metaphorical dice and launched a practice based XP system that I was sure would increase student motivation. I pictured excited band kids battling each other for bragging rights and prizes. What did I get instead? Crickets. Shrugs. Eyerolls.

So, what went wrong? Why didn't my Ben Wyatt inspired band game become the epic adventure I imagined? Let's unpack this gamified flop and how we plan to press "restart" in August.

Ben Wyatt explain The Cones of Dunshire

Leveling Up (Or So I Thought)

Gamification in education is designed to turn traditional lessons into more engaging experiences, where students are motivated to explore and practice content in exchange for badges, points, and recognition. (McCarthy, 2021). Gamified learning has many positive outcomes including: assessment, collaboration, motivation, and personalization (McNaughton-Hussain, 2025). Seeing the benefits of gamification inspired us to create our own game. In our game for band, we decided to use students practice time on our Makemusic program to give students different levels of XP. The more days of the week a student practiced, the more XP they would earn. The 3 students that earned the highest levels of XP that week would be placed on a leaderboard in the classroom. I spent $80.00 making this leaderboard that would be hung on the wall for everyone to see. It was bright, colorful, and video game themed. I thought it was AWESOME! The top 3 students who earned the highest levels of XP would also get to pick out prizes in front of the class. These prizes were things like Minecraft sunglasses, slinkies, pop its, keychains, etc. Students also received weekly celebrations and shout outs in class. The goal was to boost motivation, build practice skills, and to incorporate fun into the classroom. We were hoping that this game would also increase our retention from 6th grade band to 7th grade band and 7th grade band to 8th grade band. (Spoiler alert: it did not increase retention!)

Ben Wyatt explaining his brilliant idea! This is what we looked like creating this game for our students!

The Implosion: What Actually Happened

We started out by showing a video to each class about the importance of at home practice and the benefits of daily practice. We explained that band- like video games- is a skill based activity, meaning that the more you do it, the better you get at that skill. We had a launch party in class and tried to make it as fun as possible. We tried to get our students pumped up about this game. We spoke about it every day during class during the week we rolled it out. We were met with a very underwhelming response. The students just DID NOT care. At all. Students showed complete indifference to our efforts. When we got to hand out prizes after the first week of practice, students rolled their eyes and just shut down. No one even pretended to care! The prizes that students won were left on the ground after each class, and some students even refused to claim their prize. No one cared about the leaderboard that I worked so hard on, and some students even tried to pull it off the wall when they walked by it. There certainly were no increase in practice habits. Eventually we just stopped talking about the game, and the students never asked about it again. The best way to describe the overall vibe was "meh." or "elmo shrug."

The attitude of my students while playing this game.

Reflection: Why It Didn't Work

We have a couple of ideas of why our game was a complete flop. To begin with, our plan to use extrinsic motivation (AKA, prizes) did not appeal to students. Our students were definitely not interested in cheap toys off of Amazon. We also found that public recognition on our leaderboard made some students uncomfortable- or even disinterested. It wasn't "cool" to practice their instrument, and it was even less cool to be acknowledged for doing it. Students also claimed that their Makemusic account was inaccurately reporting their practice time- although this was investigated and found to be false. (Shout out to Makemusic, their program is AWESOME!) However, the biggest reason that this game failed was because the adults made assumptions about motivation. This was not a student centered choice, and although we tried to make class fun, we never considered input from the students while creating the game or ordering prizes. Simply put, our game did not take COVA into consideration- students did not have choice, ownership, or voice in their learning. (Harapnuik, 2018). The big takeaway (or DUH moment) was that what excites us as teachers does not always connect with students.

Ben Wyatt playing his game- not caring about what anyone else thinks!

The Comeback Plan: Rebooting the Game

Moving forward, we do not currently plan to play this game again with students. However, we realized that when we do play a game next time, students need to be involved in designing the game and the rewards. I also believe that a shift toward a team based and collaborative game might better serve our students and create more accountability in their practice habits. We are going to incorporate more in-class challenges rather than rely on homework habits. We will shift from focusing on ranking and prizes to focusing on growth and mastery in the classroom. With these changes we are hopeful to see an increase in enthusiasm, joy, and practice time next school year!

Ben Wyatt moving forward after success in his job!

A Very Ben Wyatt Ending

As it turns out, gamifying a band class is harder than explaining The Cones of Dunshire! However, I am determined to make it work this school year! I want my students to enjoy class and enjoy practicing their instruments. I want to build intrinsic motivation in my students. Hopefully in the upcoming school year we can successfully gamify the band hall and I can report on our success. Stay tuned!

References:

Daniels, G., Schur, M., Klein, H., Miner, D., Sackett, M., Holland, D., & Goor, D. (Executive Producers). (2009-2015). Parks and recreation [TV series]. Deedle-Dee Productions; 3 Arts Entertainment

Harapnuik, D. (2018, July 14). COVA. https://www.harapnuik.org/?page_id=6991

McCarthy, J. (2021, December 13). Using gamification to ignite student learning. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/article/using-gamification-ignite-student-learning/

McNaughton-Hussain, H. (2025, April 4). Gamification in the classroom: Learning through play. Discovery Education. https://www.discoveryeducation.com/blog/teaching-and-learning/gamification-in-the-classroom-learning-through-play/

Programs Mentioned:

www.makemusic.com