Monday, April 4, 2011

Spend $0 on math resources and still get the best for your students


I often complain of the distaste I had for the boring and irrelevant math instruction I received as a student. As I did in this post Math Class Doesn't Have to Suck - Help for Not Very Good Math Teachers and this one Innovative Ideas That Make Sense for Those Hungry for Math Instruction

As an innovative educator one of my goals is to share ideas with others that may help prevent future students from receiving the same dull and crappy math instruction I received. I previously posted on the launch of Mangahigh.com in 2009 where I shared some games they offered to students like Save Our Dumb Planet, Flower Power, Pyramid Panic, BIDMAS Blaster and their most powerful game at the time, Prodigi, which is a math learning engine that features thousands of math problems with worked solutions and hints that adapt to each student’s ability and learning speed. The site has matured a lot since then, with 450 math lessons covering grade 2  to 10 and Algebra 1, Geometry and 11 math games.  The Mangahigh math games are high quality and original.  New games include Sigma Prime, a game where players use multiplication and division with primes and prime factorization to defeat the alien invasions and Algebra Meltdown where players solve linear equations to guide atoms through the reactor. 

At the time of my last post, teachers could receive a few games for free and "light versions" of other games. Today, Mangahigh has recently gone completely free for US schools.  Teachers can access all of the content on the site and set work for all their students. They also have analytics which provide the ability to compare students effort and achievement to national averages across different lessons.

This video provides an overview of the functionality and content.

If you're a math teacher looking for something to get your students excited and engaged at school or at home, it might be time to give games-based math a try. 

4 comments:

  1. Seems pretty cool. I definitely think there is a lot kids can learn from playing games. I wish they didn't have to be graded on them... but you know how I feel about that!

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  2. or you could go to HoodaMath.com, not have to register, and play over 150 math video games for free.

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  3. My name is Daniel Bauer, Schools Director (US ) with mangahigh.com (I am also a former Math Teacher in the US). Mangahigh is more than just our incredible ‘true’ math games. Power packed with all the tools outlined in this post, compare the math behind the amount of budget spent on textbooks every year - to the $0 price tag of Mangahigh’s full-featured, highly engaging games-based resource that is making math irresistible. If I can be of assistance to anyone whether to set up your free school account ; provide an in-depth presentation to your District-Level Administrators or schedule Professional Development Training with your Math Department (FREE), please contact me directly . My email is daniel[at]mangahigh.com or you can reach me on Mangahigh's toll-free line: 877-626-4244 ext. 2.

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