'''Layman E. Allen''' was a law professor at the University of Michigan. While searching for a way to motivate his Sunday School students, he invented a logic game called WFF 'N PROOF. [http://www.ns.umich.edu/MT/02/Spr02/mt9s02.html]

==Career== In the 1960s, University of Michigan law professor and research scientist Layman E. Allen began aiming to dispel the idea that learning must be tedious, and designed games to engage players of all ages in increasingly complex forms of abstract reasoning.<ref name="AAN">{{cite news |date=1975-07-10 |title=Regulating Tension Important In Academic Games |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-ann-arbor-news/181077773/ |newspaper=The Ann Arbor News |via=Newspapers.com |accessdate=2025-09-15 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20250915002102/https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-ann-arbor-news/181077773/ |archivedate=2025-09-15 }}</ref> By the 1970s, his creations became widely used at elementary, junior and senior high schools across the United States.<ref>{{cite news |last=Schwadron |first=Harley |date=1976-09-09 |title=Professor Specializes in Games |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-ann-arbor-news/181090323/ |newspaper=The Ann Arbor News |via=Newspapers.com |accessdate=2025-09-15 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20250915040142/https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-ann-arbor-news/181090323/ |archivedate=2025-09-15 }}</ref> By the late 1970s, ''W'ff 'N Proof'' was an academic and commercial success, with Allen estimating he sold more than 200,000 and showing a dramatic improvement on student scores in intelligence tests.<ref name="DFP">{{cite news |last=Ratliff |first=Rick |date=1979-08-28 |title=Even the skeptics are impressed: Putting games to work to improve academic skills |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/detroit-free-press/181077206/ |newspaper=Detroit Free Press |via=Newspapers.com |accessdate=2025-09-15 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20250915001138/https://www.newspapers.com/article/detroit-free-press/181077206/ |archivedate=2025-09-15 }}</ref> Allen and his team introduced one of his games to seventh graders in inner-city Detroit schools, who continued playing the game throughout high school and went on to attend college; Allen noted that the area had a historically low rate of college-bound students, and viewed their success as strong evidence of the program's effectiveness.<ref>{{cite news |last=Traywick |first=Robin |date=1981-11-21 |title=Equations used as game, teaching tool in math |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/richmond-times-dispatch/181090986/ |newspaper=Richmond Times-Dispatch |via=Newspapers.com |accessdate=2025-09-15 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20250915041727/https://www.newspapers.com/article/richmond-times-dispatch/181090986/ |archivedate=2025-09-15 }}</ref> In the 1980s in Ann Arbor, Michigan, his academic games were used in academic competitions.<ref>{{cite news |last=Dunn |first=John |date=1984-10-13 |title=His kind of viectory is all in the mind |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-ann-arbor-news/181077432/ |newspaper=The Ann Arbor News |via=Newspapers.com |accessdate=2025-09-15 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20250915001505/https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-ann-arbor-news/181077432/ |archivedate=2025-09-15 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Beebe |first=Anne |date=1985-05-19 |title='Empty Set' dedicates itself to academic sweepstakes win |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-ann-arbor-news/181077634/ |newspaper=The Ann Arbor News |via=Newspapers.com |accessdate=2025-09-15 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20250915001723/https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-ann-arbor-news/181077634/ |archivedate=2025-09-15 }}</ref> Allen started the Michigan League of Academic Games.<ref name="AGazine">{{cite magazine |date=November 2018 |title=R.I.P. Layman Allen |url=https://agloa.org/agazine-november-2018/ |magazine=AGazine |publisher=Academic Games Leagues of America |accessdate=2025-09-15 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20250915000415/https://agloa.org/agazine-november-2018/ |archivedate=2025-09-15 }}</ref>

Allen died in 2018.<ref name="AGazine"/>

==Games== *''WFF 'N PROOF'' focuses on logical structure—its name derived from "Well-Formed Formula"<ref name="AAN"/><ref name="DFP"/> *''Queries 'n Theories'', with Peter Kugel, and Joan Ross (WFF 'N Proof) explores the concepts of the scientific method and language through gameplay. At its core, the game features a single participant called the Native, who constructs a unique language using colored chips to represent words<ref>{{cite news |last=Sackson |first=Sid |date=1970-12-06 |title=Do not pass Go, do not dispose of solid wastes |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/chicago-tribune/181090188/ |newspaper=Chicago Tribune |via=Newspapers.com |accessdate=2025-09-15 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20250915035812/https://www.newspapers.com/article/chicago-tribune/181090188/ |archivedate=2025-09-15 }}</ref> *''Equations'' challenges players through mathematical problem-solving;<ref name="AAN"/><ref name="DFP"/> computer version of ''Equations'' allows a student to play against a computer opponent instead of another student<ref name="thesis">{{cite thesis |last=Moore |first=Margaret Louise |date=1980-08-01 |title=Effects of Selected Mathematical Computer Games on Achievement and Attitude Toward Mathematics in University Entry-Level Algebra |degree=PhD |url=https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/downloads/wp988p31t |publisher=Oregon State University |accessdate=2025-09-15 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20250915001016/https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/downloads/wp988p31t |archivedate=2025-09-15 }}</ref> *''On-Sets'' teaches math skills<ref name="DFP"/> *''POE'' is a nonsimulation mathematical game<ref name="thesis"/>

==References== {{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Allen, Layman}} Category:2018 deaths

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