Math Drills

Instant Interactive | 4 1/2 Stars | Math

Summary

The good: Clever visual aids, rich graphics, big buttons, solve problems using number lines, wooden blocks, facts, and hints.

The bad: Full version only allows work with up to 10 students.

The bottom line: The best math drills app I've ever used. Straight forward, customizable, easy to configure, conveniently placed visual aids. The "lite" version is packed with features, and free.

Price: $1.99

Reviewed on an: iPhone 3G

Version reviewed: 2.0

This Week In Ed Tech’s Review

As the name implies, Math Drills does precisely what it says: namely, helps students learn their basic math facts. The "lite" version is so full-featured, you may not feel compelled to purchase the paid version. 

At Coronita Elementary School in Corona, CA, students who have not yet mastered their basic facts, receive a lunch-recess intervention we lovingly refer to as "Math Lab." In the math lab, students work with tutors on a variety of basic math-related activities, such as math hopscotch, flash cards, and math chants. One app I come back to in my own class, time and time again, is Math Drills. I wouldn't say the iPod touch offers the only way to learn basic math facts, but it's definitely another way for students to interact with their basic math facts, and sometimes, it's exactly what some students need. 

When you first launch the program, the welcome screen gives users the option to review or practice addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division facts - or a mixture of all of them. There are two key differences between review and practice modes. The practice mode is timed, while the review mode offers onscreen tips that are unique to each math problem. These "hints" are tiny animations, such as a number line that offers text clues and visual cues; counting cubes; and a number chart. There is even a 9-times "hand" icon that teaches students the "nines" finger multiplication trick. Each animation is triggered in increments of time and repeats until the student makes their selection. With a swipe of the finger, users can navigate back and forth from among these cleverly implemented visual aids.

Math Drills offers a generous settings menu. For example, the input method can be set for keypad or multiple choice. It's also possible to select how the number sentences are displayed: either vertically, horizontally, or a combination of both. For students who have mastered their math facts, a great enrichment activity is to set the questions from "numbers" to "operators" (found in the Answers setting). Here, instead of number fact questions, users are given the numbers, and they have to choose the appropriate operator. Practice mode offers a 10-question timed quiz.

Three compelling reasons to consider upgrading to the paid version are: 1) if you can't stand looking at the chalkboard theme; 2) if you need to work with multiple students with a limited number of iPods; or 3) you want to offer your students feedback on how long they tend to take with certain problems. Features found in the paid version are:
- Work with up to 10 students.
- Ability to take tests and earn high scores and awards.
- Select from up to 12 different themes (Drills Lite users only the Chalkboard theme)
- Set the number of problems for reviews, practices and tests.
- Smart Drills, which places emphasis on problems answered incorrectly and/or slowly.
- Visually track student progress with accuracy and speed graphs.

Great Interactive Math Tools: Just a Click Away

Looking for a great math site with tons of engaging activities? You owe it to your students to visit Johnnie's Math Page. Many websites offer math activities for children, but most lack math content. The links Johnnie has chosen are interesting and engaging. The layout makes it easy to find fun and interactive math games, and even a little homework help. Johnnie has conveniently organized math activities from across the web by topic. For parents and teachers, there are worksheets, as well as links to other math teaching resources.

I first became aware of the site while teaching intersession about six months ago, and sharing my SMART interactive whiteboard with a first grade teacher. Being a sixth grade teacher myself, I wondered whether or not the games would seem too juvenile for my more "sophisticated" students. I was pleasantly surprised to find many math activities perfectly suitable and extremely fun for even my most discerning brainiac. Now, my SMART board serves up great math activities to enrich my high-performing students, and remediate my struggling learners.

It's one thing to play a math game on a computer - it's just you and a mouse. But toss in the big screen of an interactive whiteboard, the audience watching, and the fact that you're standing there in front of it - it takes math gaming to a whole new level, both for the player, and the rest of the class watching. Choose from games ranging from numbers, geometry, fractions, multiplications, measurement, statistics, and probability.

Originally created in 2005, Johnnie Wilson created the site to support his math coaching work for teachers in Pajaro Valley Unified School District in California. He is presently working as a Math Curriculum Coordinator at an international school in Europe. Contact Johnnie (johnnie@jmathpage.com) if you have any suggestions for new sites, as he is always trying to make it more user friendly and comprehensive.

Thanks, Johnnie, for bringing the best of the online math games together in one, well organized website. Great fun! Keep it up!

Resurrect Your Old Technology

Before you think you just ran across a blog that hasn't been updated in years because of the picture of a Palm IIIc, keep reading. This week, my principal asked me to focus on helping students brush up on their multiplication facts during our two-week intersession. I remembered how much fun my students enjoyed using Palm Handheld PDAs in years past, but the ancient classroom set of Palm IIIc devices I had won in a grant several years back were collecting dust on their chargers. Even though I had concerns about lost styli, outdated firmware, and the fact that I hadn't tried to sync a Palm device in over three years, I hesitantly reached into the cobwebs and pulled out a freshly charged Palm IIIc.

After a failed attempt to locate the Palm desktop CD that came with the device nearly a decade ago, I found Palm's desktop manager for Windows XP at Palmone's website and downloaded and installed it, plugged in my cradle, performed my first hot sync in years, and was immediately transported back to 2001. No... "Gone" by 'N Sync didn't spontaneously start playing on my computer, but that old, familiar three-toned, ascending trill reverberated in my ears, indicating that yes, the PC and Palm were back on speaking terms. Then, there was the issue of software-- No problem. I downloaded a few trial basic math fact applications from Handango.com, taught my students how to beam apps to one another, and my students were instantly engaging in fun math games like Missle Math, Herbert's Math Time, Bunny Math, and Math Champ. This week, I found a new appreciation for old technology and a special place in my heart for trial apps! Just because it's old, doesn't mean it's broken. I'm so glad I didn't sell these things on e-bay like I wanted to last year.