Educational Math Game and the aMAZING Math Maze
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Talk about your Educational Math Game, you have entered Question 7 of the aMAZEing Math Maze. Congratulations if you worked your way through the first 6 questions to get here. These were not easy Algebra 1 level questions. We're going to introduce question #7. After that, towards the bottom of this page, I'll talk about other math games.
Question #7 in the aMAZEing Math Maze
Which one of the following answers shows this expression completely factored?
6x2 + 15x - 36
Educational Math Game
Well gee, I really do think that the aMAZEing Math Game is about as educationally mathematical as you can get. but, it is geared towards Algebra 1 students (with an Algebra 2 student version not far behind).
There is a site called education.com that offers a nice variety of games for younger children, from preschool through third grade. Unfortunately, they don't pay me anything for recommending them. Heck, it's doubtful that they even know I'm recommending them. Please let me know if you have any problems with there site.
Now, let me pontificate on what makes a good educational math game. Most of the games that are going to be super attractive to kids (and probably adults) are speed based. How fast can you shoot down the formulas by providing the correct answers, or something similar. These games don't really teach the student how to find the correct answers. They teach students who know how to find the correct answers to find the correct answers quicker. Ever piece of a second counts!
The problem is that pieces of seconds usually don't count. If you can get the correct answer in .6 seconds instead of .9 seconds you will win the game. In life and in school the problems will usually be more complex than those that can be answered in .6 seconds before the hippopotamus lands on the frog (or whatever).
I hope to keep making improvements to the aMAZEing Math Maze. I hope to learn how to animate portions of the game and make it more enticing. I also hope to expand it to other learning levels. Right now it contains common core questions that every Algebra 1 student should know and should expect to see on standardized tests. If they can complete the Maze (without taking advantage of some currently fairly obvious shortcuts), then they understand Algebra 1.