Math Fluency with Sports: x, ÷

Is the Math Fluency with Sports app easy to use?

Math Fluency with Sports is easy to get started, downloading the application is straightforward and only takes up a small (63mb) space on the drive. The game can be played without wifi and the leaderboards are saved locally when there is no connection. When entering the game the user has a display that offers ten different sporting activities as a context to start the game. When entering each sporting activity the user has four stages of difficulty as a means to aspire for the best possible score. The individual questions are presented and the calculator on the side of the screen accepts the user input for an answer. If the answer is incorrect the number wobbles and clears. At the end of each stage the user is awarded a star grade and depending on accuracy and speed they will be displayed on the leaderboard.

What we loved about the Math Fluency with Sports app

We loved Math Fluency with Sports for multiplication and division, because it is a game to help children understand the key concepts of maths; multiplication and divisions. What ensures the games appeal is the connection with a wide variety of sports ranging from basketball to hiking. This idea of a connection to a particular sport establishes a real world meaning for math, so often missed in a rather dull textbook. The connection to so many sporting activities provides a wider opportunity of choice to engage the young learners. Mastery of the game will also secure a basic knowledge of ten sporting activities. The sense of urgency is engendered by both the background music and the need to complete each question correctly and at speed to go up a stage and appear on the leaderboard. The graphics of the application are basic but in keeping with focussing on the main task of answering multiplication and division questions.

What Math Fluency with Sports app could improve on

Great apps have great user interfaces, the bells and whistles of an application can help with its stickability and longer term engagement. For example some basic enhancements would probably help, when the user enters a number the keyboard could produce a musical note like a phone. The correct and incorrect answer could be denoted with appropriate sound bytes. Nothing really moves on the screen and everything is fairly static, just a few basic cartoon animations of people in sport scoring goals or sinking a basket might help. The gaming industry invests heavily in mood music and not for good reason, perhaps a little more aspirational mood music could be added or experimented here.

The hardest job that any developer has is the production of a game that has real stickability especially when teaching important and difficult maths concepts. Maths Fluency with Sports has started on that difficult road with a fair degree of success but will need to constantly revisit the app to tweak and improve to have long term sustainability.