Ace Math Land

Ace Math Land is a free math education app. (but can be upgraded for $2.99). This is an unlock puzzle activity game for students. You drag a wooden piece to the puzzle into the math problem box that it answers. If it’s the correct answer the block turns into a part of the puzzle.  If it is the wrong answer the block shakes which tells the child to find a different one. There are different themed episodes to unlock, like Cats & Dogs, Farmerville, and Plenty of Fish. Within those episodes there are 30 levels to play. The levels of math problems can be adjusted while playing as well. You get to choose between addition, subtraction and multiplication. This is a great tool to help with fast math skills along with just having repetitive practice in a enjoyable different activity. Pros of this App are that its free (first part), and students can use this at school for practice or they can do it at home if they have an ipad to use. It also is nice because it shows the same problems in different ways, like 3+5 or 5+3 which helps the students understand that the problems can be seen in different ways. You are also able to adjust the child’s levels throughout them playing. The Cons are that to have to full version you have to pay $2.99 and that it doesn’t have division which I think would be helpful to have.  Overall, this is a wonderful and enjoyable tool for teachers, students and families.

By Kristen Fromm  

Doodle hang app

This app is free and it is a hangman app. In this specific hangman game their are different categories to pick from. The categories include countries, body parts, food, animals, Christmas & winter, clothes, elements, fruits & veggies, kings & pirates, plants trees and random. All of those categories are for one player. The countries & kings & pirates are a good way to review for sections of social studies. Elements and human body parts would be a good way to review for parts of science. It is also a fun way to learn how to spell words. If used in a two player setting students could use it to study spelling words or work on vocabulary. Playing hangman also works on thinking up strategies and problem solving.

Tangram XL Free

Geometric shapes can be combined in many ways to create different pictures. This is called creating a tangram. Tangram XL Free uses several shapes, including a diamond, several different sized triangles, and a square. This app gives the user the option of creating their own pictures or using templates. Educationally, the benefit of an app like this is that students are given the opportunity to combine geometric shapes together to create a picture without the mess of glue and construction paper. When trying to follow a template, students must use basic deduction skills to figure out where to put the shapes.

The nice thing about this app is that it is easy to use and it gives the option of using templates or not. The disadvantage of this app is that there are only 7 shapes to be used, and they may only be used once.

The link for this app is http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tangram-xl-free/id364592142?mt=8

MathBoard Addition

MathBoard Addition, a free (but can be upgraded for $1.99) app, is a virtual chalkboard that creates addition problems for students. Students choose one of five multiple choice answers to finish the problem. If they choose the correct answer, the student is rewarded with "CORRECT" and another problem. If incorrect, they may skip the problem, figure out the answer on the workspace below, or watch the Problem Solver which gives a step by step approach to answering the problem. This is a great tool that can be used as a practice activity, can be timed as a "Mad Minute", or used for assessment. The Problem Solver and workspace allows students to see step by step the correct way to solve the problem. The pros of this App are that it is free (for addition only), and teachers can use it as both as a practice and assessment tool. Students can also see how problems are solved step by step if they cannot figure them out. Also, the difficulty level can be adjusted to fit the student or lesson. The con of this App are that it is free only for addition, and that to get other operations it costs $1.99 ( a small price to pay for a great tool.) Overall, it is an awesome tool for teachers and students alike.

SudokuHD

Playing Sudoku challenges one's mind to think about numbers and logic. SudokuHD a free app available for the Ipad allows its players to choose the difficulty of level for the puzzles and keeps track of fastest time to solve, high ratings, and awards its players with points based on time to solve and any help needed while solving. One aspect of the SudokuHD which I enjoyed was the ability put multiple numbers into squares while solving the puzzle. This feature allows the players to see what numbers they are thinking about while solving the puzzle. Error checking on SudokuHD tells the player when they have entered the wrong number, which can help the player early in the game when trying to solve the puzzle.

SudokuHD could be incorporated into a math classroom in many different ways. SudokuHd would be a great warm-up activity for students' in the classroom. It would allow students to get their brains thinking about math. In addition of using it as a classroom warm-up it could also be used as a challenge for students'. Have students' start at the easiest level and work their way up in the difficulty as the school year progresses. SudokuHD could be a great activity for students' who have completed all math work and assignments, it could be included into students' free time. Students' may also begin to understand their own problem solving styles while trying to solve the Sudoku puzzles. Overall SudokuHD was a free and easy to download app. It allows for its players to think logically about numbers and exercise their brain. Students could benefit from SudokuHD in math class by using this app as a warm-up and and allowing them to understand their own problem solving and thinking styles.

Color Code Mastermind

This app is all about problem solving and using a little bit about statistics. The whole purpose of the game is for the player to figure out what pattern the different color balls are. There are settings that allow the player to adjust how many colors are used in the pattern and if any colors repeat. The object of the game is to use problem solving skills to figure out the pattern that the different colored balls are in. You have ten tries to try and solve the pattern. After each try, the game will give you a hint as to whether or not you have any in the correct order or of the correct color. If a circle is lit up, it means that you have that many correct colors in your pattern. If a circle is filled in, it means that you have that many in the correct color and in the correct spot. Just because a circle is filled in or lit up, does not mean that it corresponds with the ball on top. After ten tries the computer will show you the pattern.

This was a free application that can be found at the app store. There is also an extended version of this game called Mastermind Code Break which is also a free application.

This will get students to start using problem solving skills without them even realizing it. They will also get the very basics of probability with this game, by trying to figure out which colored ball goes where. Trial and error will only get you so far because the player only has ten tries in all to get the pattern. In the classroom, this would be a good warm up game for students to get them thinking about math and different ways to solve problems.

Math Fractions Lite

The free app I choose to review was called Math Fractions Lite. This app could be used in a math classroom when first introducing fractions to offer practice or assistance to struggling students. The app is designed to help students learn equal parts of a shape, how to divide regions equally, and how to identify them by name through multiple choice questions. The app does so by first offering students the opportunity to view a short tutorial on the area of concentration. The first section that goes over dividing shapes asks students to identify which dotted line cuts the shape into two equal parts. The next section show three shapes and asks the student to choose which shape is divided into specific number of equal parts. For example, there are three rectangles and the question asks the student to divide the shape into five equal parts. The final section asks students to move a scissors to cut a shape into a specific number of equal parts. In one case, it asks to cut a circle into eight equal parts and when completed revels that eight parts is called eights. During the activity if a students answers a question wrong it will identify the correct answer. At the end of the activity there is a final review which walks students through different shapes and identifies each shapes label according to the number of times its divided.

One major pro to this app was the fraction tutorials. Sometimes it’s difficult for students to comprehend the entirety of a concept from a lesson. By utilizing app’s such as this one, students might better understand certain concepts that were before unclear. In addition to the tutorials I felt the “voice on” option that read the questions out loud was also a great feature. A large con to this app is that it can’t monitor the progress of students. This means that if an educator wanted to know how a student was doing with the app they would need to observe his/her work while completing the activity.

In the classroom I would use this app as a review or an additional teaching tool. If I believed a student was struggling or needed extra practice I might pull them aside and have them use the app. Not only does it reinforce concepts that should have already been covered but it will also challenge them on what they’ve already learned. Overall, Math Fractions Lite is a fun and easy tool to practice fraction knowledge.