[HN Gopher] Show HN: Silly math games to make learning fun for K...
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Show HN: Silly math games to make learning fun for K through 3rd
grade
Please let us know what you think. We would be so so grateful for
feedback from the community. Thank you in advance!
Author : moserch
Score : 61 points
Date : 2023-01-31 15:31 UTC (7 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.mindlygames.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.mindlygames.com)
| ChicagoBoy11 wrote:
| Random thought that I'm not sure is even a good thought. Tried
| the number pizza man game, and one mechanic which I thought may
| be interesting is if the distribution of values in the pizza
| boxes changes as time goes on. Rather than maybe skipping ahead
| after a while if the student doesn't get it, slowly change the
| randomization to include more and more, and then perhaps only
| exclusively, the right answer. This would allow a kid to still
| "get it," while still engaging them in the game mechanic.
| moserch wrote:
| That's actually a really good idea!
| zengid wrote:
| This looks neat, thanks for sharing! Any comments on what
| resources you used to tailor the games to a specific grade level?
| lappet wrote:
| I don't have kids, but I love the UX here! Keep it up :)
| moserch wrote:
| Thank you!!
| dflock wrote:
| Some additional consequences for just trying all the answers - or
| a mode where there are, if you've got a kid who will just click
| on them all instead of thinking.
| sintaxi wrote:
| Thanks for sharing. Im always on the lookout for good teaching
| aids. Unfortunately I find this too stimulating for me to present
| to my kids. I prefer to show my kids media that is calming and
| beautiful rather than "fun".
| jedberg wrote:
| This is awesome. Will put my K and 2nd grader on it later.
|
| But also, your website is _fast_. I know it 's all static and
| pretty easy to do, but yet most people get it wrong, so kudos to
| you on that!
| moserch wrote:
| Thanks. We have some engineering superheros to thank for that.
| Really appreciate the feedback and compliment:)
| zh3 wrote:
| Worked very well with 5yo daughter; she and mum thought it was
| very good ("not too busy, extremely clear").
|
| One small thing that upset daughter (only a little bit) was
| getting "Game over!" - which I think just meant she'd come to the
| end of the game, but which she took as "You lost!" (probably as a
| result of watching older brother play games). If that's right,
| then consider changing wording to "Well done, you've reached the
| end of the game!" rather than the (more negative, to many people)
| "Game over!".
| moserch wrote:
| We just changed it to "Well done!" Great feedback. Thank you!
| [deleted]
| racl101 wrote:
| In the 90s, I used to love playing Number Munchers on the Apple
| IIc.
| moserch wrote:
| I loved that game too!
| pencilforhire wrote:
| That game look fun!
| robohydrate wrote:
| I lost so much time to the various munchers games.
| hamburga wrote:
| Blocked by corporate firewall :(
| pencilforhire wrote:
| I'm so sorry :( !
| thenobsta wrote:
| My daughter is in 1st grade and really enjoys playing blackjack
| with me(Dad). It's an amazing metaphor for addition and gives
| some good entrypoints for talking about probability and decision
| making.
|
| We play for candy. Surprisingly she hasn't eaten any of it yet.
| She seems to be balancing her desire to beat dad by having more
| candy and her desire to eat candy. It's been great bonding time
| too.
|
| Next up, a similar game with other operations.
| moserch wrote:
| How would you feel about an online game where your kid played
| blackjack for candy to learn addition? Is it still ok, or is
| that only something you would have her play with you? That
| sounds fun and is such a great practical application of the
| skill she's learning.
| mritchie712 wrote:
| I try to do anything that can be done without a screen,
| without a screen.
| thenobsta wrote:
| The math and probability part could probably be made into a
| game. Something engaging and with a compelling end goal
| (candy or completion of a fun narrative) would catch her eye.
|
| My goals for playing are more oriented towards bonding,
| learning useful/life lessons, and keeping the kiddo
| challenged.
| lern_too_spel wrote:
| The Dino Eggs Multiplication by 6 game has the same order each
| time, which might make kids remember the order instead of the
| multiplication facts.
| barbazoo wrote:
| The music on the one I tried is awesome!!!
| pencilforhire wrote:
| Thank you!
| moserch wrote:
| Yay! I'm glad you liked it :)
| thenobsta wrote:
| A plug for "Math from Three to Seven: The Story of a Mathematical
| Circle for Preschoolers" seems warranted here. It has great ideas
| for fun things to do with kids as well.
|
| https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/12689040-math-from-th...
| moserch wrote:
| This book looks super cool! Did you write it? We haven't
| forayed into preschool games yet so I'll def check this out.
| Thanks!
| thenobsta wrote:
| Ah! Not me. I should have made that clear. A Mathematician
| named Alexander Zvonkin wrote it. The book's super well
| written and is full of useful ideas though!
| boogiemath wrote:
| This book is great indeed. Coincidentally, I just published a
| post where talking about how this book encouraged me to start a
| little math circle myself: https://boogiemath.org/meta/meta-2
| thenobsta wrote:
| Awesome. Good on you! The kids are lucky that you organized
| one.
|
| Edit: Just looked through your website. Love the math and the
| satire. Keep it up!
| moserch wrote:
| I just read through it too! Love the comedy. And I don't
| think the kids were lucky not to have you as a teacher!
| They would have been lucky to have you! I'm sorry you got
| side tracked by the pandemic there.
| moserch wrote:
| Awesome. Are you doing that in person? I love getting to work
| with the little ones in person.
| r00t4ccess wrote:
| The grades links at the bottom of the page are broken for me.
| pencilforhire wrote:
| Thank you we will look into it!!
| moserch wrote:
| Fixed. Thanks for pointing this out. :)
| RomanPushkin wrote:
| I am willing to pay $1000 for a math game that won't be silly.
| I'm not even kidding. I tried to find something that would spark
| interest, captivate, but I had little luck with math games.
|
| I wrote my own (if you scroll my comment history) math game/app
| which is little bit different and partially solves the problem.
|
| But I am constantly looking for anything that would be cool,
| captivating, and educational.
| jimbob45 wrote:
| The Treasure {MathStorm, Mountain, Cove, Galaxy} games of the
| 90s were pretty fun. I'd imagine they're not too difficult to
| emulate.
| stevofolife wrote:
| Just curious, what is cool, captivating and educational to you?
|
| Love to know.
| RomanPushkin wrote:
| One of the ideas - introduction to math equations as 3D
| graphics game with effects.
|
| I haven't seen such games, except silly, that do that.
|
| Maybe some other foundational math principles implemented as
| games.
|
| I love https://www.zachtronics.com/ games, but these games
| are for 12+ I guess, and even more. Not always about math
| though.
|
| Adults assume that kids are fine with silly educational
| tools. While in reality they're boring, because every school
| implements some sort of cheap flash/html5 games that solve
| nothing. I want the kiddo to solve hundreds examples in 3D,
| maybe even in VR, and enjoy that. Instead of 2D browser old-
| skool tech.
|
| I don't understand why VR is underutilized in education.
| Where are all the games we're supposed to have to educate
| children? Imagine how easy it's explain x^3 (like 10^3, 25^3,
| and so on) in VR?
|
| I am using VR for fitness, and it's been a great success.
| Lost 17 pounds with 5 more to go for my goal. I am paying
| $20/month for the app. But I'd be willing to pay for similar
| math educational app.
| Shared404 wrote:
| Something like Myst could be a very fun implementation of
| this. Have some of the puzzle be solved by manipulation of
| the environment using graphing, or have actual mathematical
| puzzles.
|
| I bet a word problem would be much more interesting if you
| play it out
| dgacmu wrote:
| as a source of inspiration, something I just did that you might
| find worth exploring: I just bought a dozen old Martin Gardner
| books out of desperation. So far they're working really well.
| (For a 5th grader). About $4 each on used book sites.
|
| (I mine through them to find little puzzles to feed to the
| 10-year-old as we're doing things like driving to activities)
| corysama wrote:
| I'm a fan of the DragonBox series. At least their algebra set.
| Haven't checked out the others.
|
| https://dragonbox.com/products/algebra-5
|
| https://dragonbox.com/products/algebra-12
| lordnacho wrote:
| The geometry thing is not bad, a bit like a geo proof quiz.
| bobobob420 wrote:
| I do raindrops on luminosity. Its pretty dumb but I want to get
| a high score. The rest of luminosity games are pretty bad
| Shared404 wrote:
| https://www.classcraft.com/resources/blog/science-game-odyss...
|
| More science than math proper, and is probably around middle
| school level. May still be interesting however.
| moserch wrote:
| These guys are awesome. I actually met them a few years ago
| at ISTE at the house of blues in Chicago. Really nice people
| and a super cool product.
| boogiemath wrote:
| Not sure if it's not silly, but I just posted a little exercise
| myself: https://boogiemath.org/meta/meta-2. Have more of them
| on stack.
| moserch wrote:
| I'm with you. That's not our goal here, as we are going for a
| kid comedy angle, but a product like that would be super cool.
| julienchastang wrote:
| Is there any evidence, from the academic literature or otherwise,
| that math games improve educational outcomes? (Sorry, I know that
| sounds like a wet blanket statement and I am not discouraging the
| OP from trying to make an impact here. I am just curious.) Also,
| I tried to play a couple of games (e.g.,
| https://www.mindlygames.com/game/skip-counting-by-5-dino-soa...),
| but it has been stuck "loading" for the entire duration of how
| long it took me to write this comment.
| mandmandam wrote:
| 1. Play is how basically every other mammal learns.
|
| 2. Learning comes easier to people when it's fun, because
| they're more engaged and receptive.
|
| That said, I don't think these games in particular look
| anything close to optimal. To be fair though, I can't load them
| either - stuck at 98%.
| moserch wrote:
| If you'd be willing to share what type of device you're on
| that would be super helpful. Thanks for the feedback!
| mandmandam wrote:
| Firefox on an M1 mac.
| dangond wrote:
| The key thing is that they encourage kids to willingly spend
| time learning. https://www.wired.com/2012/06/dragonbox/ is a
| good article on the author's experience with a similar game and
| their kid
| hamburga wrote:
| Sure. I used to work in education policy, and this was the most
| reliable source I can recall of peer-reviewed studies on
| impacts of educational curricula/interventions. Plugged in
| elementary school games for you:
|
| https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/Search/Products?searchTerm=game&...
| moserch wrote:
| Hi! Any chance you could let me know what type of device your
| using? We tested on a few after your comment and this might be
| a really helpful piece of info for us. Thanks for letting us
| know it isn't loading for you!
| zh3 wrote:
| Couple of things here didn't work; firefox 102.4.ESR and
| chromium on linux go to '100%' on Dino Eggs and hang there;
| works on same PC using chrome and on a random Win10 box with
| Chrome.
|
| Dino's eggs also popped up two '40' choices for a Q where
| answer was 40 - but one of them said wrong answer (as
| reported by 5YO experimental subject).
| julienchastang wrote:
| MBP (a recent one), chrome browser.
| gnabgib wrote:
| Firefox windows (in order.. seems like the first one starts
| the chain):
|
| - Error decoding audio: menuMusic - The buffer passed to
| decodeAudioData contains invalid content which cannot be
| decoded successfully.
|
| - Uncaught (in promise) DOMException: The buffer passed to
| decodeAudioData contains invalid content which cannot be
| decoded successfully.
|
| - Uncaught Error: Audio key "menuMusic" missing from cache`
| stevofolife wrote:
| How did you make these games? I think it's fun but would it be
| possible to make it multiplayer? Say two kids, one on each
| device, and join the game to play against one another.
| moserch wrote:
| That's an excellent idea for the future. We are just starting
| out, and I would be thrilled to have the capability!
| gurvinder wrote:
| My 14 year old son was frustrated with "Fun" math games as they
| were not really fun. So he started building his own games in
| p5.js and recently he launched these games at
| https://thegamebox.ca/ He has been making these games since he
| was 10yo, so there is a progression in quality. Last game he made
| is not a math game but a puzzle game (Red Remover) he used to
| play and love when he was very young and was no longer available.
| He has done all the graphics as well for these games.
| drekipus wrote:
| This is amazing! well done to him!
| ZainRiz wrote:
| Wow, these games would be impressive for a college kid to be
| making!
| SailorJerry wrote:
| I played through two of the games twice and if I'm not mistaken,
| the sequence of numbers is always the same. Could they be
| randomized? I have a feeling children would learn the pattern and
| not focus on numbers.
| moserch wrote:
| We agree! This is actually in the works!
| mncharity wrote:
| Fwiw, in "Numberman's Pizza Party | Addition within 5", after the
| question (and answer) has changed, clicking on a box with the
| _old_ (now incorrect) answer yields correct pizza. And the
| reverse. It seems box correctness is set at creation, rather than
| reflecting the current question? Which sets up a dynamic of look
| at question, click on "correct for current question" box, get
| told it's wrong.
| diggernet wrote:
| Yup, that caught me off guard, too. Perhaps a solution would be
| to have a gap where the old pizzas finish but no new ones are
| added, then change the prompt and start new pizzas when the
| screen is empty.
|
| Another problem I saw in that game: At one point the prompt was
| 50 45 __ 35 but it wanted me to click on 30. That was in the
| Skip Counting By 5 game.
| moserch wrote:
| This is a great catch. Thank you. We are cooking up a
| solution!
| cridenour wrote:
| I can't load any games either and get the error: "Uncaught Error:
| Audio key "menuMusic" missing from cache" when it happens.
|
| Hopefully it's a quick fix as I'd love to check them out closer!
| moserch wrote:
| We want you to be able to play! I reported the error you're
| getting. What type of device are you on. Thank you for the
| feedback!
| ugh123 wrote:
| Very cool. Although looking for something at a 4th or 5th grade
| level for my 3rd grader :)
| whitej125 wrote:
| My son responds super well to gamified learning. What I found is
| that there are plentiful options when it comes to math... but not
| as much so when it comes to reading.
|
| When he was in kindergarten during the disrupted school year of
| 2020/21... I created a "reading version" of the classic Battle
| Ship game. Instead of a 10x10 grid of letters and numbers it was
| a 10x10 grid of K-2 "sight words" that I would randomly choose
| and draw onto a grid (in Excel) that could be printed.
|
| Then we'd play by reading and repeating sight words to indicate
| the coordinates to attack. He loved it!
| moserch wrote:
| Such a great idea. We played a lot of battleship when we were
| growing up. I may need to try this out with my son when he
| starts learning to read!
| bitwize wrote:
| Man, takes me back to the days of "The Magic of Multiplication 1"
| on TI-99/4A:
|
| https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PoPUMrmmmUs
|
| My sister (four at the time) called it "Mockablecation". It's how
| I learned my times tables a full year ahead of my class.
| pencilforhire wrote:
| Thank you so much for the feedback, this is cool!
| moserch wrote:
| Nice! Thanks for showing us this!
| drekipus wrote:
| Cool stuff!
|
| I'm actually in the process of writing a game for my nephew, who
| is turning 9.
|
| My game is going to be more about _going to school_ and encourage
| him to have fun learning and socialising; perhaps shooting
| zombies, protecting /getting power-up from the school, collecting
| books for points.
|
| He lives in a poor household where the mother doesn't want to do
| anything that isn't life-or-death. The kids (he's oldest of 3)
| are alive regardless of going to school,and the mother didn't
| need school, so there's a real need for some sort of external
| encouragement to push beyond that.
|
| It seems trite, but I do wish that _fortnite_ had some "stay in
| school" message, even just in the title sequence / main menu.
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(page generated 2023-01-31 23:01 UTC)