Maths Apps

Our most exciting venture yet - into the world of the iPhone and iPad app and yes we will get around to the Android versions as fast as we can.

Recently we have been watching the younger generation as they interact with games apps. Who could resist getting into maths apps development after seeing the level of engagement and the speed of learning that they generate. We have also been approached by a few schools that now have at least one class set of tablets asking if we have any quality maths apps related to the Australian Maths Curriculum they can use.

Our first reaction was to have a look at some of our most popular games to see if they would make good fun and educational maths apps. We also considered some of the games that we are currently designing to match with the Australian Curriculum. From this we commissioned our first 5 apps which will be available very soon at the apple Store.

So what did we choose and why?

We chose:

3 Snakes, an app for younger children aged 3-6, 3 Snakes is a linear measurement app to develop, visual thinking, direct comparison of snake lengths, multistep problems and related reasoning, and the comparative language of small, smaller, smallest, long, longer, longest.

We chose a linear measurement app because we know that children need many opportunities to directly compare lengths, to talk about the comparisons and to move from using long and short as a descriptor to the full range of comparative language.

Traffic Lights is an app for the 7 to adult player. 'Traffic Lights' is a place value and logic game that calls for adaptive reasoning. The game is loosely based on Bulls and Magpies or Mastermind, instead of cards or coloured pegs numbers are used. There are three scoring colours as in actual traffic lights, red means totally wrong number, orange means right number wrong place, green means right number right place. The goal is to guess the 4, 5 or 6 digit number, whichever level is chosen in 6 or less guesses; otherwise the iPad wins.

We chose this one because we have played it many times in classrooms and have seen the students' ability to read large numbers, and work with place value, improve immensely in just a few minutes. It is also interesting how quickly they begin to see the logic of the game and become more strategic as they play it.

Fingertips, an ageless app – well it was intended for younger students , has been used in maths support even at high school level and some adults who we won't name find it addictive and usde it for brain-training or as a brain gym.

Our first ever and still very popular addition, subtraction, multiplication and division game that is played against the computer had to be included. It is a Connect 4 type of game where yellow counters float down columns and players enter the answer to the question on them as fast as they can. For correct answers the counters turn blue, but if the counter travels as far as it can before a correct answer has been entered, it stays yellow. The goal is to beat the computer by being first to have four winning counters in a straight-line vertically, horizontally or diagonally. There are many levels and speeds that this game can be played at to suit the needs of the player.

We chose this one because unlike some other games that we have seen it explicitly takes a developmental approach to mental computations strategies. A child who is still working with count on 1, 2 or 3 does not need near doubles coming onto the screen or large numbers whereas a sophisticated player needs the full range of strategies and larger numbers to come onto the screen. There need be no rehearsal of poor strategies such as finger counting and automaticity can be achieved before moving onto the next level. Also because it has no babyish animations it can be played by a player of any age, even an adolescent, without them feeling patronised.

Balancing Act is an app to help Year 6 - Adult students work with BOMDAS, also know as 'order of operations', as specified in the Australian Maths Curriculum. A series of expressions are presented and students need to select from the available operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication or division depending on the level of the game) to make an expression equal to or balance the given answer. As they do so the order in which operations are evaluated is important. As proficiency improves so it is time to move on to the next level.

We chose this partly because it is a new topic in the Year 6 maths curriculum and also because we have been using playing cards to play a version of this game with students for many years. Why not make it more exciting and accessible out of school as well as an in school as a fun game on the iPad.

Number Scramble is a computation game designed to help students use their number skills as they compete in a crossword-style game. The two players take turns to make lines of numbers that add to 12. Each line is scored:

• 1 - for each new tile used
• 2 - for including an old tile at the end of the line
• 3 - for including an old tile in the middle of the line.

The game ends when no more tiles are available or when no more lines can be made. And the winners are ... players of all ages who really enjoy this numbers game.