Rocket Math

What is Rocket Math?

Rocket Math is a program the Apollo-Ridge Elementary School uses in K-5 as a way to give our students practice with their basic math facts of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. You may have encountered the Rocket Math program before. It has a non-virtual component in the form of a well-established product of the same name based on traditional written resources.

It has also had an app-based component for some time. It is very much a product with broad and active support and, recently, it has received a web-based facility to expand its usefulness further. Children who seem to be making careless errors in arithmetic are perhaps not as fluent in calculation as they might be.  

How much does Rocket Math cost?

Classroom licenses start at $4 each per year for one to 11 students, $2.30 each per year for 20 to 50 students, $1.15 each per year for 100-869 students,  $1 each year for 1,000+ students. 

Rocket Math Special Offer

DIRECTIONS: You need to register for an account at the above link, set up the number of student seats you want, assign login credentials to the seats and select which Learning Track on which they begin. Then students open a browser and go to to https://play.rocketmath.com to login and play.

Sign up today and receive your first trial for 60 days

Does Rocket Math have an app?

Yes, Rocket Math app is available to download for free on iOS and Android devices

What grades is Rocket Math for?

Rocket Math uses a mastery learning approach that works for all grades 1 to 12. Rocket Math is graduated and progressive.

RocketMath Features

"Automacity" is a word used within Rocket Math's own description of its purpose.  Its developers want your children to move beyond just knowing how to carry out arithmetical processes, beyond even being fluent, they are targeting "automacity". This aimed for "automacity" can best be described by comparing it to how a mature reader decodes a word.  Whereas when they are learning to read, a child moves from letter to letter to build the word up one step at a time, an advanced reader sees the word as a whole and, as such, its meaning comes in an instant without conscious thought. A child with "automacity" in maths won't just see a number sentence but the answer too without stepping through the question bit by bit.

It is a good ambition and one that we, as teachers, focus on for multiplication. We encourage rote learning so that no thinking has to go into the answer and that numbers are recognised easily in terms of the multiplications into which they fit. We focus less on the same process for the rest of arithmetic but Rocket Math aims to rectify this.

For newcomers to Rocket Math, there is a comprehensive and easy-to-follow guide available online. This takes you through the whole process from registration to making the app available to your class. The process is actually straightforward and logical so most users won't need much support but it is handy to have for those users less confident or who want to confirm something.

Within the teacher's dashboard, each child can be allocated a learning track. Each of these tracks has a self-explanatory title such as addition, multiplication, fact families, and subtract from. The tracks are then split into 26 levels, each of which is subdivided three times into the thematic titles of take off, orbit, and universe.  A child's position on the track can easily be seen by teachers from their dashboard.

There are plenty of options to tailor the Rocket Math experience to your school and students. There are ten learning tracks for children to work through.  The children can be monitored by the main administrator of the app or be allocated to different teachers or teaching assistants who are supporting each particular student.

The student experience of Rocket Math is a good one. It is built around a space-travel theme. It is not a game and nor does it pretend to be one but this well-realised theme makes it interesting.  It provides a slick and user-friendly experience as good as a native app. Animations and voiceovers enhance the theme and it suits the expected usage pattern of little and often.  

The app adapts well to whatever screen is displaying it and all devices can use the on-screen, built-in keyboard to input answers. Usefully, on a device with a physical keyboard, such as a laptop or desktop PC, the answers can be entered using the keys. For some children, this can help with accessibility.

The purpose of the app will need to be explained to children who are used to each lesson advancing their learning rather than consolidating it in such a way as Rocket Math does.  Faced with simple arithmetic on early levels, children may feel that it is beneath their ability but encourage them to focus on how quickly their speed increases as they progress and instances of occasional errors decrease.

This multi-device web app is a great way to enter the Rocket Math universe and in doing so help your children to develop speed and accuracy in arithmetic. They'll get good-quality practice but you and your colleagues won't get extra marking. This is a subscription-based service but the accompanying website and resources provide all you need to appraise its usefulness.  It is well worth your while to do so.

What we like about Rocket Math

• Small, simple steps give students opportunities to be successful
• For our group of students with modified needs, this was great practice that allowed them to master two facts at a time
• Cumulative review
• Graphics and sound effects students enjoy
• Printable certificates
• Ability to add student's names

What we would like to see in Rocket Math

• More individualization based on student's progress and levels
• Options to select the basic facts being worked on developing 

Final Verdict of Rocket Math

Rocket Math believes that students are motivated by their own learning and success. Their online game is designed to help children learn math facts to the level of automaticity—so there’s no hesitation in answering. It is carefully designed so that by playing it, students cannot help but learn the facts.  The game progresses very gradually through all the facts in an operation so that students are very successful but get plenty of practice.  This app can be played on just about any device at any time.

Students can login and play at school and at home and on-the-go. It’s so intense that the game requires a 30 minute break after about 5 minutes of play.  Mission Control audibly corrects and gives extra practice on problems that aren’t answered instantly. There are many milestones (celebrated by congratulations from Mission Control) which mark successful achievement and which motivate students as they see their progress. A risk-free 30 day trial period enables you to evaluate the game with your own student(s).   

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