Math Galaxy 7th Grade Math

British buyers of apps can be forgiven for avoiding those that appear to be designed for the American market.  On the whole, as this app shows, there is no real reason to do this.  While curriculums vary across international borders, it isn’t by so much as to have an adverse effect.  Topics may be encountered a bit early, in which case it gives children the chance to gain extra knowledge.  Topics may be encountered a bit late, in which case it offers useful revision support.

Aimed at Grade 7 of the U.S. Common Core curriculum, the maths in this app is of a difficulty appropriate for year 8 children.  There are six main topics covered by this app, providing it with a broad coverage of maths.  Algebra, ratio, proportions, rational numbers, geometry and statistics and probability are each covered.

Within these topics, a number of sub-topics are covered by worksheet style question or sometimes by games for two players sharing a device.  The worksheet style questions are often answered by multiple choice or enter the number style mechanics, but there are also other answer types for when the maths suits it.   The screen is divided into a number of sections.  The main area presents the questions, the answer options and any working out that the app offers.  Two smaller sections below offer explanations and a built-in numerical input.

Games are strictly about the maths and far from what might be recognised as a computer game.  For example, player 1 might construct an equation for player 2 to solve. 

All of this content and the mechanics work well.  Feedback to incorrect answers is concise, clear and useful.  The main screen shows any working out that should have been followed and the small box below explains the steps.  Teachers in a classroom can make good use of this app by using it where they would have otherwise utilised a worksheet or textbook.  The advantage of this is that in a class of multiple students they can each get immediate feedback and assistance when the teacher is engaged with another student.

The app does not store any of a student’s scores.   The exercises are open-ended, so children work as long as they feel they need to.  When they stop, they are given their score.  This can be emailed to the teacher if the device is linked to an email address.  Teachers are likely to find this worthwhile to do, as it will allow them to record the data from a single device rather than have to access multiple ones.

The app’s presentation is quite plain in comparison to many other apps. The main section presents the questions, diagrams and appropriate working out clearly, but the smaller explanation section does not have enough space to spread out the text as well as would be ideal. There is nothing unusable about it, but today’s app users are more used to less busy screens that employ more whitespace.  The overall look is of a basic web page. 

The incentive to overlook the shortcomings in this app’s presentation is the hefty amount of content that comes without subscription nor any need for further purchases.

You can download Math Galaxy 7th Grade Math on your iOS devices from the Apple App Store.