Prior to the development of the Math Snacks products, researchers examined over 20,000 standards-based test results for K-8 students in four different districts to determine which mathematical concepts students struggled with. They found that middle school students show the greatest learning gaps in the areas of fractions, decimals, ratio/proportion, and number system concepts. Once the mathematics concepts were selected, mathematics educators, mathematicians, learning specialists and game developers, used the Learning Games Design Model and collaborated with teachers and students to develop, test and research 6 animations, 5 games, teacher resources and learner guides. Math Snacks isn’t a curriculum, but a series of activities that can be used with the existing curriculum in grades 3-7. Some Math Snacks address more than one content area and can be used in a variety of lessons at different grade levels. All Math Snacks products are aligned with the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM) and address the CCSSM Mathematical Practices when used as recommended. Each animation and game has a Teaching With video and a printable Teaching With guide that helps teachers use the snack, offers discussion questions, vocabulary, and companion activities. Each animation also has a printable Learner’s Guide students can use to apply their concept to problem solving. Math Snacks is a free online resource and includes student materials in Spanish.
Discussion from the 2015 Teaching & Learning Video Showcase (43 posts)
Vivian Guilfoy
Facilitator Senior Advisor
May 11, 2015 | 06:33 a.m.
Great integration of learning, games and teaching tools. Are the gains in conceptual understanding consistent across all grades? for boys and girls? How is conceptual understanding being measured? Have you mapped which snacks are most appealing and successful for different grades (since you are working across a fairly large developmental span). Any challenges for using it or fitting it into existing curriculum?
Karin Wiburg
Co-Presenter Distinguished Professor, Learning Design & Technology
May 11, 2015 | 07:07 p.m.
Hi Vivian, Thank you for your question. the best thing about our conceptual gains (based on our open-ended and some multiple choice items test) was that there were NO differences between girls and boys and no significant differences by ethnicity, English language learning level, or socio-economic status. Our products emphasize concept images by using all modalities. We developed all our products with the diverse kids available in Southern New Mexico. Karin Wiburg, P.I. for this grant
Karen Trujillo
Co-Presenter Math Snacks Outreach Director
May 11, 2015 | 07:29 p.m.
Vivian,
The grade span is significant, but with the shift of content in the common core, the content in the games covers many grades. Monster School Bus is the most elemEntry content, focusing on the ten-frame, but even this game addresses decimals that add to 10 and decimals that add to 1, which is a 5th grade concept. Whereas Game Over Gopher focuses on the coordinate plane, a 6th or 7th grade concept, 4th and 5th graders love this game. The great thing is that they are good games and kids play them because they are challenging and enjoyable and kids of all ages want to try them all. There is a common core guide for each game that shows which concepts are addressed across grade bands.
Vivian Guilfoy
Facilitator Senior Advisor
May 12, 2015 | 09:30 a.m.
Great to see your responses. Very exciting preliminary results. And, thanks for reminding me about the common core and how that actually reinforces the appropriateness of the snacks across different grades. Students sound “hungry” for the snacks (I couldn’t resist:)
Karen Trujillo
Co-Presenter Math Snacks Outreach Director
May 12, 2015 | 12:22 p.m.
We had 100 students on campus yesterday and we had them play the games. These kids were mostly third graders so they were playing Monster School Bus and they enjoyed it. We even had a group of kindergarten kids and they could navigate through the first three levels.
Vivian Guilfoy
Facilitator Senior Advisor
May 12, 2015 | 03:07 p.m.
I am always pleased to see how adept young people are in plunging in and navigating these kinds of materials. Creating opportunities for them to continue doing this through middle and high school and sustaining their interest is so important. Any plans to “grow” your materials for higher mathematics?
Debra Bernstein
Facilitator Senior Researcher
May 11, 2015 | 11:47 a.m.
This is a great idea, and I love the name “math snacks”. I had a similar question to Vivian’s, in terms of which snacks are most appealing and successful. In the video, it looks like some games have kids getting up and (literally) running around, while others seem (entirely?) computer-based. Is that the case? If so, do you find a difference in appeal and/or impact for the get-up-and-move games vs. the computer based ones?
Karin Wiburg
Co-Presenter Distinguished Professor, Learning Design & Technology
May 11, 2015 | 07:09 p.m.
Actually all SNACKS include inquiry activity in addition to watching videos or playing games. the differences are based on which pictures we took. Nothing is just on the computers and nothing is just inquiry. All are connected. Karin Wiburg
Karen Trujillo
Co-Presenter Math Snacks Outreach Director
May 11, 2015 | 07:22 p.m.
Debra, If you go to the website you will find all of the Bonus activities. Each game and each animation has at least one hands on activity that enhances the learning in the game/animation. They go together, however we found that learning took place when students used just the games because not all teachers had time for the bonus activities.
Vivian Guilfoy
Facilitator Senior Advisor
May 12, 2015 | 09:30 a.m.
Thanks for suggesting we take a look at the website. And, good to know that the games, by themselves, are not only appealing but support learning. Do you have data on the various ways teachers are using these resources?
Debra Bernstein
Facilitator Senior Researcher
May 12, 2015 | 01:29 p.m.
Thanks for the pointer to the website!
Karen Trujillo
Co-Presenter Math Snacks Outreach Director
May 12, 2015 | 01:36 p.m.
The games are great, but make sure to look at the animations as well. They are great teaching tools and the lesson plans kind of bring the concepts together.
Vivian Guilfoy
Facilitator Senior Advisor
May 12, 2015 | 03:09 p.m.
Will do.
Karin Wiburg
Co-Presenter Distinguished Professor, Learning Design & Technology
May 13, 2015 | 05:16 p.m.
And most important for myself as the PI for the project was the development of actual videos of teachers teaching kids with the math snacks modules. Many teachers need modeling of inquiry-based lessons which is central to the use of Math Snacks. Karin
Awesome tool! Curious as to the range of platforms they are available on and what coding language was used. Do the activities share a common structure? For instance, are they all games with goals? Is there a target grade level you have in mind?
To those who are just now learning about math snacks – how might you want to use math snacks in your classsroom?
Karin Wiburg
Co-Presenter Distinguished Professor, Learning Design & Technology
May 11, 2015 | 07:10 p.m.
Right now they are available to everyone on computers. We have some apps for the iPad. Would like to see expansion to more platforms and I think we are working on that with Glass Labs. Barbara Chamberlin can provide more information for this question. I think they are trying a language called Infinity. K.Wiburg
Karen Trujillo
Co-Presenter Math Snacks Outreach Director
May 11, 2015 | 07:36 p.m.
Nevin,
Karin addressed some questions. As far as the use in the classroom, there are multiple resources at the website. There are teacher guides, lesson plans, how to videos and student support materials. The goal is to us the animation or game as a learning opportunity and not an ‘extra’ activity when kids are done with ‘real’ work. Each lesson shows how the animation orgame can be used as part of the learning experience. The kids learn vocabulary and facility with the concepts through gameplay. This can be observed during discussions after gameplay or listening to student talk during gameplay. I hope this helps.
Karin Wiburg
Co-Presenter Distinguished Professor, Learning Design & Technology
May 11, 2015 | 07:15 p.m.
Love that you are all looking at Math Snacks. Our video doesn’t tell enough so if you are interested please visit our web site https:// mathsnacks.org. All modules include a game or animation AND inquiry-based learning support. Karin Wiburg
Karin Wiburg
Co-Presenter Distinguished Professor, Learning Design & Technology
May 11, 2015 | 07:15 p.m.
Love that you are all looking at Math Snacks. Our video doesn’t tell enough so if you are interested please visit our web site https:// mathsnacks.org. All modules include a game or animation AND inquiry-based learning support. Karin Wiburg
Karen Trujillo
Co-Presenter Math Snacks Outreach Director
May 11, 2015 | 07:18 p.m.
The Math Snacks project has been such a wonderful experience for teachers, students, researchers and developers. Please take the time to look at all of the teacher supporT materials.
Sara Morales
Co-Presenter Math Snacks Sr. Program Manager
May 11, 2015 | 07:33 p.m.
All Math Snacks games and animations address critical content including number sense, ration, proportion, measurement, scale factor and pre-algebra. Some snacks address more than one content area. Each game and animation includes a hands on bonus activity, such as connect four or a human number line. Teachers who are beginners to Math Snacks should not think of these as “free time activities”; they are designed to be used as part of the instruction and should support any curriculum program already being used.
Thanks for all the info! Do you have a way of assessing where students are at before deploying the activities?
Karen Trujillo
Co-Presenter Math Snacks Outreach Director
May 12, 2015 | 12:20 p.m.
Nevin,
The short answer to your question is no, but the long answer is kind of.
When we did our experiments, we did have pre and post tests. We used released items from standardized tests and developed some of our own. The instruments were validated during pilot studies and unreliable questions were eliminated. So yes, we did test student content knowledge before and after treatment (using Math Snacks), but these instruments were used internally.
That’s great. I know that with some math games I think teachers have trouble buying into them when they are either not at the student’s ability level or if the school admin mandates them in the classroom for set blocks of time. It sounds like Math snacks serve as helpful supplements that the teacher is free to implement based on the need, and can also be tailored to kids’ ability levels, so that is terrific.
Other thoughts on Math Snacks from people? Feel free to ask about content, implementation, or the technology behind the project!
Karin Wiburg
Co-Presenter Distinguished Professor, Learning Design & Technology
May 12, 2015 | 12:34 p.m.
One of the most important things about Math Snacks is the extensive research we did prior to designing our final materials and assessments. We looked at student results on a standardized state test, observed for many hours in classrooms and taught teachers mathematics while noticing areas of difficulty.
Karin Wiburg
Co-Presenter Distinguished Professor, Learning Design & Technology
May 12, 2015 | 12:35 p.m.
One of the most important things about Math Snacks is the extensive research we did prior to designing our final materials and assessments. We looked at student results on a standardized state test, observed for many hours in classrooms and taught teachers mathematics while noticing areas of difficulty.
That’s great. It can be really easy to just focus on the technology aspect and miss the mark on the learning needs, but clearly you guys have that covered. Have you noticed that you are able to increase the pace of game production now that you have a few working models under you? I’ve found that having a codebase can help, though I know animations will always take time no matter what….
Karen Trujillo
Co-Presenter Math Snacks Outreach Director
May 12, 2015 | 01:35 p.m.
Nevin,
I wish we could ramp up the production of new games, but there is just so much involved in doing them right. The animation, the iterations, the user testing, classroom testing etc. just takes a long time. We are focusing on two things right now—first taking all existing games to the mobile platform. Ratio Rumble and Pearl Diver are available in Itunes, but Game Over Gopher, Gate and Monster School Bus need to be programmed for mobile. WE also have another proposal into NSF that has made it through the evaluation round and we are waiting to hear if we will receive funding. This new round will focus on pre-algebra concepts.
Vivian Guilfoy
Facilitator Senior Advisor
May 12, 2015 | 03:14 p.m.
Glad to hear you are working to continue production. And, that you are doing it based on solid research, content, and approaches. Have you all worked with other NSF mathematics projects that are trying to do similar things? If so, which ones?
Great resource! When we were searching for examples of online math videos that could serve as a model for our dialogically-oriented video-based online learning project, we were inspired by the animated dialogues (e.g., Bad Date) and also appreciated the conceptual nature of many of the games and animations.
Karin Wiburg
Co-Presenter Distinguished Professor, Learning Design & Technology
May 13, 2015 | 07:38 p.m.
ON the Math Snacks web site there are additional videos of teachers teaching the snack modules with real kids in real classrooms. Try out these as well. Look at Teaching with.. on the mathsnacks.org site. As the PI I wanted to demonstrate inquiry-based teaching to go with our snacks.
Vivian Guilfoy
Facilitator Senior Advisor
May 13, 2015 | 09:25 a.m.
At some point, it might be interesting to think about a facilitated discussion among grantees/teachers to share some common goals, approaches and challenges related to this topic. Perhaps that is already happening through the Resource Centers or other venues. Also, I would be curious to know if you ever have students from different schools talk with one another to share their experiences with the program.
Karin Wiburg
Co-Presenter Distinguished Professor, Learning Design & Technology
May 13, 2015 | 05:13 p.m.
We have data from focus groups with teachers but haven’t yet fully analyzed this data.
I definitely hear you on everything taking time and only being able to go so fast. That has been my expereince with web & app development. And I’m sure interactive experiences like math snacks have a lot of moving parts that need to be developed in stages. Exciting that you are moving to mobile, though. Sounds like one is already in the iTunes store. Are you planning to target Android as well?
What other questions do people have about Math Snacks?
Karin Wiburg
Co-Presenter Distinguished Professor, Learning Design & Technology
May 13, 2015 | 05:14 p.m.
We hope to partner with other groups like Glass Labs and Brain Pop to move our products to Android. As the PI I keep asking the same question but the technical people say this is not as easy as it sounds. These folks lead by Dr. Barbara Chamberlin should be online soon to answer questions.
Barbara Chamberlin
Lead Presenter Professor, Game Developer
May 14, 2015 | 11:46 a.m.
We would LOVE to take all Math Snacks to mobile, and are seeking funding to do so, and continue to investigate if income from mobile sales or pay-to-play sites could support that (currently: no). We are THRILLED with the numbers of users we are getting from our partner sites (BrainPOP and GlassLabs, >150k users in just one month). This is an important trend for future development on NSF funded projects regarding distribution — partnerships for distribution have the potential for scalability.
Elizabeth Hassrick
Research Scientist
May 14, 2015 | 12:11 p.m.
I like that you say it is not a curriculum.So interesting to design it so it is not about practice. Very key, innivative contribution, to show people that you do not have to re-invent the wheel the whole wheel to do better work.
Barbara Chamberlin
Lead Presenter Professor, Game Developer
May 14, 2015 | 01:22 p.m.
Thanks, Elizabeth! That was really important to us… it means a lot that you recognized that!
How did you choose the mathematical topics that the snacks relate to?
Barbara Chamberlin
Lead Presenter Professor, Game Developer
May 14, 2015 | 01:51 p.m.
short answer: (from our research summary at http://mathsnacks.com/media/print/mathsnacks_re...) Before developing the intervention, researchers examined over 20,000 standards-based test results for K–8 students in four different districts to determine gaps in conceptual understanding, paying special attention to open-ended questions. They also conducted over 500 hours of classroom observations to explore and confirm the identified gaps, identifying why students misunderstood the questions they did. Middle school math students showed the greatest learning gaps in the areas of fractions, decimals, ratio/proportion, and number system concepts. These results were consistent regardless of socio-economic status, grade level, type of school, or education level of parents.
Vivian Guilfoy
Facilitator Senior Advisor
May 14, 2015 | 04:04 p.m.
Thanks to everyone for a robust discussion. I learned a lot.
I love that Flash was being used at 1:13! Is that used to create both computer and mobile versions? I know Flash can be packaged on the AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime) environment to run on mobiles, but I’m wondering if Objective-C / XCode is used for the iOS versions? If so I’m curious as to how they are creating the sprites!
Barbara Chamberlin
Lead Presenter Professor, Game Developer
May 14, 2015 | 10:08 p.m.
We used Flash for the animations and the online games. We have used Flash and AIR for some of our other educational tools and for the game, Ratio Rumble, but the other games for Math Snacks are too robust for the AIR packaging. Pearl Diver and the Math Snacks Video player were done in Objective-C/XCode. For future development, we will likely go with Unity… but it wasn’t where we needed it to be when we started development on these tools. Let me know if you want more details on development.
Vivian Guilfoy
Senior Advisor
Great integration of learning, games and teaching tools. Are the gains in conceptual understanding consistent across all grades? for boys and girls? How is conceptual understanding being measured? Have you mapped which snacks are most appealing and successful for different grades (since you are working across a fairly large developmental span). Any challenges for using it or fitting it into existing curriculum?
Karin Wiburg
Distinguished Professor, Learning Design & Technology
Hi Vivian, Thank you for your question. the best thing about our conceptual gains (based on our open-ended and some multiple choice items test) was that there were NO differences between girls and boys and no significant differences by ethnicity, English language learning level, or socio-economic status. Our products emphasize concept images by using all modalities. We developed all our products with the diverse kids available in Southern New Mexico. Karin Wiburg, P.I. for this grant
Karen Trujillo
Math Snacks Outreach Director
Vivian,
The grade span is significant, but with the shift of content in the common core, the content in the games covers many grades. Monster School Bus is the most elemEntry content, focusing on the ten-frame, but even this game addresses decimals that add to 10 and decimals that add to 1, which is a 5th grade concept. Whereas Game Over Gopher focuses on the coordinate plane, a 6th or 7th grade concept, 4th and 5th graders love this game. The great thing is that they are good games and kids play them because they are challenging and enjoyable and kids of all ages want to try them all. There is a common core guide for each game that shows which concepts are addressed across grade bands.
Vivian Guilfoy
Senior Advisor
Great to see your responses. Very exciting preliminary results. And, thanks for reminding me about the common core and how that actually reinforces the appropriateness of the snacks across different grades. Students sound “hungry” for the snacks (I couldn’t resist:)
Karen Trujillo
Math Snacks Outreach Director
We had 100 students on campus yesterday and we had them play the games. These kids were mostly third graders so they were playing Monster School Bus and they enjoyed it. We even had a group of kindergarten kids and they could navigate through the first three levels.
Vivian Guilfoy
Senior Advisor
I am always pleased to see how adept young people are in plunging in and navigating these kinds of materials. Creating opportunities for them to continue doing this through middle and high school and sustaining their interest is so important. Any plans to “grow” your materials for higher mathematics?
Debra Bernstein
Senior Researcher
This is a great idea, and I love the name “math snacks”. I had a similar question to Vivian’s, in terms of which snacks are most appealing and successful. In the video, it looks like some games have kids getting up and (literally) running around, while others seem (entirely?) computer-based. Is that the case? If so, do you find a difference in appeal and/or impact for the get-up-and-move games vs. the computer based ones?
Karin Wiburg
Distinguished Professor, Learning Design & Technology
Actually all SNACKS include inquiry activity in addition to watching videos or playing games. the differences are based on which pictures we took. Nothing is just on the computers and nothing is just inquiry. All are connected. Karin Wiburg
Karen Trujillo
Math Snacks Outreach Director
Debra, If you go to the website you will find all of the Bonus activities. Each game and each animation has at least one hands on activity that enhances the learning in the game/animation. They go together, however we found that learning took place when students used just the games because not all teachers had time for the bonus activities.
Vivian Guilfoy
Senior Advisor
Thanks for suggesting we take a look at the website. And, good to know that the games, by themselves, are not only appealing but support learning. Do you have data on the various ways teachers are using these resources?
Debra Bernstein
Senior Researcher
Thanks for the pointer to the website!
Karen Trujillo
Math Snacks Outreach Director
The games are great, but make sure to look at the animations as well. They are great teaching tools and the lesson plans kind of bring the concepts together.
Vivian Guilfoy
Senior Advisor
Will do.
Karin Wiburg
Distinguished Professor, Learning Design & Technology
And most important for myself as the PI for the project was the development of actual videos of teachers teaching kids with the math snacks modules. Many teachers need modeling of inquiry-based lessons which is central to the use of Math Snacks. Karin
Nevin Katz
Technical Associate
Awesome tool! Curious as to the range of platforms they are available on and what coding language was used. Do the activities share a common structure? For instance, are they all games with goals? Is there a target grade level you have in mind?
To those who are just now learning about math snacks – how might you want to use math snacks in your classsroom?
Karin Wiburg
Distinguished Professor, Learning Design & Technology
Right now they are available to everyone on computers. We have some apps for the iPad. Would like to see expansion to more platforms and I think we are working on that with Glass Labs. Barbara Chamberlin can provide more information for this question. I think they are trying a language called Infinity. K.Wiburg
Karen Trujillo
Math Snacks Outreach Director
Nevin,
Karin addressed some questions. As far as the use in the classroom, there are multiple resources at the website. There are teacher guides, lesson plans, how to videos and student support materials. The goal is to us the animation or game as a learning opportunity and not an ‘extra’ activity when kids are done with ‘real’ work. Each lesson shows how the animation orgame can be used as part of the learning experience. The kids learn vocabulary and facility with the concepts through gameplay. This can be observed during discussions after gameplay or listening to student talk during gameplay. I hope this helps.
Karin Wiburg
Distinguished Professor, Learning Design & Technology
Love that you are all looking at Math Snacks. Our video doesn’t tell enough so if you are interested please visit our web site https:// mathsnacks.org. All modules include a game or animation AND inquiry-based learning support.
Karin Wiburg
Karin Wiburg
Distinguished Professor, Learning Design & Technology
Love that you are all looking at Math Snacks. Our video doesn’t tell enough so if you are interested please visit our web site https:// mathsnacks.org. All modules include a game or animation AND inquiry-based learning support.
Karin Wiburg
Karen Trujillo
Math Snacks Outreach Director
The Math Snacks project has been such a wonderful experience for teachers, students, researchers and developers. Please take the time to look at all of the teacher supporT materials.
Sara Morales
Math Snacks Sr. Program Manager
All Math Snacks games and animations address critical content including number sense, ration, proportion, measurement, scale factor and pre-algebra. Some snacks address more than one content area. Each game and animation includes a hands on bonus activity, such as connect four or a human number line. Teachers who are beginners to Math Snacks should not think of these as “free time activities”; they are designed to be used as part of the instruction and should support any curriculum program already being used.
Nevin Katz
Technical Associate
Thanks for all the info! Do you have a way of assessing where students are at before deploying the activities?
Karen Trujillo
Math Snacks Outreach Director
Nevin,
The short answer to your question is no, but the long answer is kind of.
When we did our experiments, we did have pre and post tests. We used released items from standardized tests and developed some of our own. The instruments were validated during pilot studies and unreliable questions were eliminated. So yes, we did test student content knowledge before and after treatment (using Math Snacks), but these instruments were used internally.
Nevin Katz
Technical Associate
That’s great. I know that with some math games I think teachers have trouble buying into them when they are either not at the student’s ability level or if the school admin mandates them in the classroom for set blocks of time. It sounds like Math snacks serve as helpful supplements that the teacher is free to implement based on the need, and can also be tailored to kids’ ability levels, so that is terrific.
Other thoughts on Math Snacks from people? Feel free to ask about content, implementation, or the technology behind the project!
Karin Wiburg
Distinguished Professor, Learning Design & Technology
One of the most important things about Math Snacks is the extensive research we did prior to designing our final materials and assessments. We looked at student results on a standardized state test, observed for many hours in classrooms and taught teachers mathematics while noticing areas of difficulty.
Karin Wiburg
Distinguished Professor, Learning Design & Technology
One of the most important things about Math Snacks is the extensive research we did prior to designing our final materials and assessments. We looked at student results on a standardized state test, observed for many hours in classrooms and taught teachers mathematics while noticing areas of difficulty.
Nevin Katz
Technical Associate
That’s great. It can be really easy to just focus on the technology aspect and miss the mark on the learning needs, but clearly you guys have that covered. Have you noticed that you are able to increase the pace of game production now that you have a few working models under you? I’ve found that having a codebase can help, though I know animations will always take time no matter what….
Karen Trujillo
Math Snacks Outreach Director
Nevin,
I wish we could ramp up the production of new games, but there is just so much involved in doing them right. The animation, the iterations, the user testing, classroom testing etc. just takes a long time. We are focusing on two things right now—first taking all existing games to the mobile platform. Ratio Rumble and Pearl Diver are available in Itunes, but Game Over Gopher, Gate and Monster School Bus need to be programmed for mobile. WE also have another proposal into NSF that has made it through the evaluation round and we are waiting to hear if we will receive funding. This new round will focus on pre-algebra concepts.
Vivian Guilfoy
Senior Advisor
Glad to hear you are working to continue production. And, that you are doing it based on solid research, content, and approaches. Have you all worked with other NSF mathematics projects that are trying to do similar things? If so, which ones?
Joanne Lobato
Great resource! When we were searching for examples of online math videos that could serve as a model for our dialogically-oriented video-based online learning project, we were inspired by the animated dialogues (e.g., Bad Date) and also appreciated the conceptual nature of many of the games and animations.
Karin Wiburg
Distinguished Professor, Learning Design & Technology
ON the Math Snacks web site there are additional videos of teachers teaching the snack modules with real kids in real classrooms. Try out these as well. Look at Teaching with.. on the mathsnacks.org site. As the PI I wanted to demonstrate inquiry-based teaching to go with our snacks.
Vivian Guilfoy
Senior Advisor
At some point, it might be interesting to think about a facilitated discussion among grantees/teachers to share some common goals, approaches and challenges related to this topic. Perhaps that is already happening through the Resource Centers or other venues. Also, I would be curious to know if you ever have students from different schools talk with one another to share their experiences with the program.
Karin Wiburg
Distinguished Professor, Learning Design & Technology
We have data from focus groups with teachers but haven’t yet fully analyzed this data.
Nevin Katz
Technical Associate
I definitely hear you on everything taking time and only being able to go so fast. That has been my expereince with web & app development. And I’m sure interactive experiences like math snacks have a lot of moving parts that need to be developed in stages. Exciting that you are moving to mobile, though. Sounds like one is already in the iTunes store. Are you planning to target Android as well?
What other questions do people have about Math Snacks?
Karin Wiburg
Distinguished Professor, Learning Design & Technology
We hope to partner with other groups like Glass Labs and Brain Pop to move our products to Android. As the PI I keep asking the same question but the technical people say this is not as easy as it sounds. These folks lead by Dr. Barbara Chamberlin should be online soon to answer questions.
Barbara Chamberlin
Professor, Game Developer
We would LOVE to take all Math Snacks to mobile, and are seeking funding to do so, and continue to investigate if income from mobile sales or pay-to-play sites could support that (currently: no). We are THRILLED with the numbers of users we are getting from our partner sites (BrainPOP and GlassLabs, >150k users in just one month). This is an important trend for future development on NSF funded projects regarding distribution — partnerships for distribution have the potential for scalability.
Elizabeth Hassrick
I like that you say it is not a curriculum.So interesting to design it so it is not about practice. Very key, innivative contribution, to show people that you do not have to re-invent the wheel the whole wheel to do better work.
Barbara Chamberlin
Professor, Game Developer
Thanks, Elizabeth! That was really important to us… it means a lot that you recognized that!
montserrat Teixidor-i-Bigas
How did you choose the mathematical topics that the snacks relate to?
Barbara Chamberlin
Professor, Game Developer
short answer: (from our research summary at http://mathsnacks.com/media/print/mathsnacks_re...) Before developing the intervention, researchers examined over 20,000 standards-based test results for K–8 students in four different districts to determine gaps in conceptual understanding, paying special attention to open-ended questions. They also conducted over 500 hours of classroom observations to explore and confirm the identified gaps, identifying why students misunderstood the questions they did. Middle school math students showed the greatest learning gaps in the areas of fractions, decimals, ratio/proportion, and number system concepts. These results were consistent regardless of socio-economic status, grade level, type of school, or education level of parents.
Vivian Guilfoy
Senior Advisor
Thanks to everyone for a robust discussion. I learned a lot.
Nevin Katz
Technical Associate
I love that Flash was being used at 1:13! Is that used to create both computer and mobile versions? I know Flash can be packaged on the AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime) environment to run on mobiles, but I’m wondering if Objective-C / XCode is used for the iOS versions? If so I’m curious as to how they are creating the sprites!
Barbara Chamberlin
Professor, Game Developer
We used Flash for the animations and the online games. We have used Flash and AIR for some of our other educational tools and for the game, Ratio Rumble, but the other games for Math Snacks are too robust for the AIR packaging. Pearl Diver and the Math Snacks Video player were done in Objective-C/XCode. For future development, we will likely go with Unity… but it wasn’t where we needed it to be when we started development on these tools. Let me know if you want more details on development.
Further posting is closed as the event has ended.