Mangahigh

Mangahigh is an excellent new website that has just been launched to help children engage with maths and improve their ability in this subject. The site has been created by Dr Marcus Du Sautoy (maths professor at the University of Oxford and Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science) and Toby Rowland (co-founder of King.com, one of the largest casual games companies), and is the first curriculum-compliant maths games for 11-16 year-old students.

REINFORCES SKILLS

Most parents worry about their child playing too many computer games for fear that their brain will rot and they'll turn into zombies, but Mangahigh dispels such reservations. Through gameplay, Mangahigh aims to provoke students to explore sophisticated maths concepts and reinforce skills through repetition. Mangahigh has launched with six maths games (free to use online) including, Ice Ice Maybe, Save Our Dumb Planet, Flower Power, Pyramid Panic, BIDMAS Blaster and Prodigi. These test variously players estimation, calculating, problem solving, graph, ordering and transformation skills.

SCHOOLS PACKAGE

The games are supported by Prodigi, the world's first adaptive maths learning engine for Key Stages 3 and 4. Schools can invest in the Schools Package, which starts at £662.51 (ex vat) for 100 students for 6 months and includes to do lists, student analytics, more games and Prodigi learning programs and lessons. This reviewer (whose own maths skills fall well below par) completed the free Prodigi lesson, which tested on Pythagoras' formula, and shamingly, got only two answers right out of ten. On game two, this score went up to nine out of ten. And it was kind of fun.

Kids today don't know how lucky they are to grow up with these sorts of inspired online learning programmes, which make subjects such as maths fun and interesting. The good thing is that many maths-shy adults may benefit too.

26 November 09