silver Posted August 16, 2014 Share Posted August 16, 2014 Now that the app has been out for a bit, does anyone have any reviews? Is it as good as the algebra app? What age range do you think would benefit best from using it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
forty-two Posted August 16, 2014 Share Posted August 16, 2014 In some ways, I like it better than the algebra app, although to be fair, I have played more of elements than algebra (I've played 75-80% of elements). I think age wise is something like 9 and up, but my young 8yo is fairly successful with it, though she needs a bit of help. One downside is that it's hard to help if you haven't played it yourself (that's why I started), because you don't know how the app does things. It's quite intuitive if you start from the beginning (especially if you know basic geometry), but I couldn't jump in cold in the middle. It's very similar in approach to the algebra app - minimal instruction (although for some reason it feels like more than with algebra - it scaffolds well), learn by doing, teaches tons of implicit knowledge but nothing explicitly (although the connections are extremely clear if you know geometry - I'm glad I am playing it myself, because I can explain things in "regular" math by referring to dragonbox). It's proofs done visually - you have your initial setup, your goals, and an ever-increasing toolbox of things you can do to get from point A to point B (or point C, or D, or H - the number of steps increases as you go). It seems more open-ended wrt multiple solutions, because unlike the algebra app, it doesn't reward you for minimal steps. It's very amenable to teaching the idea of starting with what you *can* do, even if you haven't the faintest idea how that will get you to your goal, and going from there - with just diving in and trying something, and seeing where that leads you - which is helpful with my perfectionist, who takes one look at some of the complicated ones and wants to give up without trying. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eagle Posted August 16, 2014 Share Posted August 16, 2014 Ds just finished it this morning. He loved it! He is 6 and found it very intuitive. He has not done any geometry before. There were a few places he got stuck and I "helped" by asking "Is there anything they have given you that you haven't used yet? Can you figure out any more angles?" Usually that got him to look everything over and he found the step he was missing. If not, there is a help feature that will tell you what type of step you could try next. One downside is that he expected to have a big battle at the end with all of the guys he had created for the monster armies as he levelled. Instead, he finished the final puzzle and nothing happened. That was a letdown. But the game itself he loved. (Can anyone else who has finished it confirm that it just ends? Maybe he missed something.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kchrrs Posted August 16, 2014 Share Posted August 16, 2014 We only just discovered the Dragonbox suite of games earlier today so I don't have a long term review, but my 8, 10, and 11 y/o sons have each played about 30 minutes. Each has asked when they can play more. They are are at levels 2.5, 4.1, just shy of 4 respectively. They are excited to try the other games when they finish this one. Their enthusiasm may be in part because I never download games. As to whether it is teaching math skills, I couldn't really say. They are working with shapes and angles...I plan on playing it (something else that never happens) so I can discuss the 'elements' with them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Χά�ων Posted August 16, 2014 Share Posted August 16, 2014 I had not heard about this, tja ks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silver Posted August 16, 2014 Author Share Posted August 16, 2014 Well, I noticed it was half price on Google Play ($3 vs $6 on Amazon), so I decided to go ahead and get it. If my kids can't do it now, I can play it and they'll grow into it. ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
urthmama Posted August 17, 2014 Share Posted August 17, 2014 my kids loved dragonbox alegbra (A+++) - the elements not as much...i found it sort of meh. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silver Posted August 17, 2014 Author Share Posted August 17, 2014 In case anyone else is wondering, I'll add my initial impressions. I finished the game last night on the normal difficulty setting. The game spends a lot of time with defining shapes (triangles, various quadrilaterals, a circle) and the last few zones (worlds? levels?) were flashbacks of high school geometry where you had to prove things such as a certain triangle is an isosceles triangle based on various parallel lines. My kids have both played the first two zones on easy. My elder child needs a little bit of help when he can't quite see what his next step would be. My younger child had some troubling intuiting what the game wanted her to do. They both enjoyed the game though. Eagle, there was sort of a "boss level" battle at the end when I played the normal difficulty setting. You kill a few spiders like normal and then you have to kill a boss spider. It wasn't entirely clear to me at first that the boss spider wasn't just backdrop, as he didn't jump around like the other ones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
musicianmom Posted August 17, 2014 Share Posted August 17, 2014 There's no help setting on Elements. If you get stuck on a level, you're just stuck. My dd6 is better at it than I am, I think she has finished nearly all the levels. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted August 17, 2014 Share Posted August 17, 2014 I initially thought it seemed too simple. It certainly plays through really quickly. But once we finished the whole thing, I really liked it. I think it stealthily teaches the concept of proofs really well. I wish they explained the "difficult" setting better. The game is so short that I think most kids should do the hard setting. It just means more levels within the game. It seems slightly annoying to go back and play them later too, so that's annoying. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silver Posted August 17, 2014 Author Share Posted August 17, 2014 There's no help setting on Elements. If you get stuck on a level, you're just stuck. My dd6 is better at it than I am, I think she has finished nearly all the levels. There's help, at least on the android tablet version. In the top middle is a light bulb. When I press that, I have the choice to see what rule to use next or to see all the rules to use on that level. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest lacostej Posted August 18, 2014 Share Posted August 18, 2014 Hello, my name is Jerome and I am one of the guys behind WeWantToKnow. First let me say thank you for a lot for the kind words! It's really appreciated ! Here a few answers to your comments: @Eagle: we have introduced a mini game in version 1.1 of Elements where at each chapter end, the user has a small fight with monsters. Has your kid tried it ? @musicianmom, as @Silver noted, we have introduced a simple help in version 1.1 of the Elements. It's not instructive as in DragonBox Algebra 12+, but points you in the direction you should use, more Hint based Also, if you're struck, we have walkthroughs online. We welcome any interested people here to take contact with us with feedback, suggestions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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