Factor Samurai
Cost: Free
This application is similar to the popular application
called Fruit Ninja. This education
application focuses on breaking numbers down into prime numbers. The goal is to avoid slashing prime numbers
with your sword. There are three modes
to this game; Grasshopper, Apprentice, and Master. These three levels affect the amount of
numbers that enter the screen at one time.
In Grasshopper mode, only one number will fly across the screen at a
time, while at Master mode, multiple numbers can appear on the screen.
One of
the main differences between fruit ninja and factor samurai are the penalties. In fruit ninja, you lose a life for every
piece of dropped fruit, and the game is over if a bomb is hit. In factor samurai a dropped prime number
results in a drop in score, and swiping a prime number results in a loss of
life. As the game goes on, different
swords become available. Each additional
sword gives you an extra life.
Furthermore, there will sometimes be colored orbs that fly across the screen. If you strike this orb, all of the numbers on
screen will be reduced to primes.
This application
is addicting as well as educational. I
recommend people give it a try in the classroom. After playing, you may even discover more
prime numbers that you had not realized existed!
The one con I could find about this application was that some of the numbers was that there was no pause option. I find that this would be useful in case play needs to be stopped.
This is a fun game with definite educational purposes but I felt that once you got on a roll, the same few numbers appeared again and again. It would be nice if this game had a variety of levels and perhaps a progressing difficulty setting. But....it is an addicting game!
ReplyDeleteI could see myself using this app in my classroom. This app could either be used to introduce prime numbers or the concept of finding prime numbers within large numbers such as factor trees. The only cons I really see in this app is that it seems like the program does not use a variety of numbers and after playing a few times (on several levels) I do not believe the numbers gain any difficultly which is a little disappointing. A similar app I have used is non-educational app called Fruit Samurai which has the same concept without the math behind it. Overall this app really could make students excited about their learning.
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