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math achievement

Free Math Program for iOS and Android

In response to the demand for learning at home, Bedtime Math has taken their research-proven after-school math club activities and presenting them for families to use for free.  Bedtime Math’s mission is simple: to make math a fun, natural part of kids’ everyday lives, just like the bedtime story. Bedtime Math is offing their Bedtime Math app for free, and it is available on iOS and Android. Every day, they deliver a fun new math problem for parents and kids to explore numbers in real life together. Plus, studies have shown it’s proven to improve kids’ math skills.

Bedtime Math is a national nonprofit that ignites kids’ curiosity and learning by unleashing the fun in math. It offers playful online math problems for parents to do with their kids every day, as well as lively hands-on games. Research has shown that both offerings reduce kids’ math anxiety, increase their love of math, and lay the groundwork for greater math achievement. For more information, visit www.bedtimemath.org.

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Researchers: Math needs a more visual approach

Stanford University researchers aim to dispel the belief that students should not use their fingers to learn mathematics

Taking a more visual approach to math instruction at the K-12 and higher-ed levels could dramatically change brain development as it relates to future math success, according to a new paper from Stanford researchers.

“SEEING AS UNDERSTANDING: The Importance of Visual Mathematics for our Brain and Learning,” supports the use of visual mathematics and developing “finger discrimination” in students because it could result in higher math achievement.

According to co-authors Stanford University mathematics researcher Dr. Jo Boaler and brain researcher Dr. Lang Chen, the human brain can visualize a representation of the fingers during math problems. This provides an opportunity for further research and pedagogical development.…Read More

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Math education: What’s the problem?

A new report claims that taking algebra too early is detrimental to students’ math education.

A new report from the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) tackles the U.S. algebra and mathematics dilemma and is the latest to suggest that not all students should be pushed to take algebra in the eighth grade.

“Solving America’s mathematics education problem,” by Duke professor Jacob L. Vigdor, examines cultural shifts that have resulted in new waves of interest in students’ mathematics performance.

Despite a renewed focus on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) skills, high school students continue to perform poorly on math tests. That trend continues into college, where many new college students enroll in remedial math courses. The report notes that “the proportion of new college graduates who majored in math-intensive subjects has declined by nearly half over the past 60 years.”…Read More

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Turning up the heat: Summer school programs use math video games for enrichment and to stem summer brain drain

Educators say game-based learning inspires math enthusiasm.
Educators say game-based learning inspires math enthusiasm.

Statistics show that over the summer break, most students lose an average of two to three months of math computational skills they learned during the previous school year.  This loss of learning can mean an academic setback for some children that can take weeks, and in some cases months, to remedy when the school bells ring in the fall.

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has characterized the effects of “summer learning loss” as “devastating” and “well-documented.” And according to a 2009 report by McKinsey and Company, this backsliding represents a cost of as much as $670 billion to the nation’s economy.

For educators in Florida and Texas, the concerns over losing ground academically over the summer were the same, yet their needs were somewhat different.  One was looking for enrichment to keep kids excited about learning, while the other needed tailored remediation.  Yet the quest led them both to video games. Not your ordinary ‘commercialized’ games, but rather immersive, instructional video games.  These game-based learning tools, designed to teach and reinforce key math concepts, are on the forefront of helping teachers and students meet and exceed state-standards and score well on high stakes exams. In both cases, they selected Tabula Digita’s DimensionM.…Read More

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Technology adds to students’ math comprehension

Research found that the use of interactive whiteboards, similar to the INTERWRITE Mobi, to teach math can increase student achievement.
Research suggests the use of tools that enhance visual learning, such as the INTERWRITE Mobi, can help students learn math.

Recent studies from two different continents point to the value of education technology in helping students grasp important yet abstract math concepts—and in both studies, animations that allow students to visualize these concepts were central to the results.

In one research project, the use of interactive whiteboards to teach math in several schools in Great Britain was found to have a positive effect on student learning, according to a three-year study conducted by researchers at Lancaster University.

In the other project, software that takes a visual approach to teaching math contributed to double-digit gains in the test scores of several Orange County, Calif., elementary students.…Read More

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