Re:DragonBox: Algebra beats Angry birds
by ChuckMcM on Wednesday June 13, 2012 @03:41PM
(#4107996)
"1. The game really highlights the malleability of numbers. For me, this was the deep revelation about algebra, and it took me a long time to get there. The way the game is designed using touch, lets you fling numbers around and place them on top of each other and such, and doesn't let players get hung up on numbers or placement. We get to the understanding that algebra requires very quickly. You seem to see that as a loss, but I see that as a really big win."
This. One of the things my eldest daughter struggled with early on in Algebra was the variables. She kept insisting on having a 'value' for the variable up front because the abstraction bothered her. And math was about numbers right? (when you are 10 math is always 'numbers' it seems, even when that is arithmetic). One she got rid of the notion that math was 'numbers' rather it was a sequence of mutation rules against things which were infinitely mutable (within constraints), it went much better for her.
This program elegantly sidesteps that issue by starting of with boxes. Boxes are the real world equivalent of variables and they aren't numbers so they don't trigger that association per-maturely.
This. One of the things my eldest daughter struggled with early on in Algebra was the variables. She kept insisting on having a 'value' for the variable up front because the abstraction bothered her. And math was about numbers right? (when you are 10 math is always 'numbers' it seems, even when that is arithmetic). One she got rid of the notion that math was 'numbers' rather it was a sequence of mutation rules against things which were infinitely mutable (within constraints), it went much better for her.
This program elegantly sidesteps that issue by starting of with boxes. Boxes are the real world equivalent of variables and they aren't numbers so they don't trigger that association per-maturely.