Visual math with immediate feedback

[lamppost]

Sharing my favorite math resource as a new school year starts.
I used to teach with it at a public school a decade ago and although I loved it then, they've made it far better since. It has just been released recently for home use, and is currently only available through Homeschool Buyers Co-op: https://www.homeschoolbuyersco-op.org/stmath/?source=138339

Here's a Ted talk by the creator: 

[Ariston]

thanks for sharing. I'm really interested in this.  Would you say it is more geared towards younger students or would it be appropriate for middle schoolers too?

 

Do you have any experience with kids moving from this to normal written math?  does the program include transition to written math?

 

[lamppost]

Many people use it as a supplement. Last year it was our main program for my 1st and 3rd graders and I used http://www.math-aids.com/ to create custom worksheets my kids used to have some paper/pencil work to go along with whatever concept they were encountering in ST Math.

 

For middle school the developers consider it a supplement and here's more info: 
http://www.mindresearch.org/stmath/middle/

 

It also includes what they call "High School Intervention" to fill in gaps for HS students.

[Jess4879]

Really like the looks of it, but it's only available in the US (thumbs down) and it's really pricey. $200 as a supplement is a lot.  :(

[kasien]

We did not have luck with ST math.  I wish we did, because I love the idea of it, but both my ds13 and dd12 could not get into it.  I might give it another go with dd12 (soon 13) this year because, well, I paid for it and no one is using it!

[Ariston]

Really like the looks of it, but it's only available in the US (thumbs down) and it's really pricey. $200 as a supplement is a lot.  :(

 HSBC has it for $120 (still a lot, but a little better at least.)

 

We did not have luck with ST math.  I wish we did, because I love the idea of it, but both my ds13 and dd12 could not get into it.  I might give it another go with dd12 (soon 13) this year because, well, I paid for it and no one is using it!

 

Did they just not enjoy it?  Or did they play it but not progress?  Why don't you think they liked it--do they not like computer math games in general?

[u2006kids]

ctc math...... 

[nature girl]

The OP obviously knows much more than me, so maybe she can comment on how it worked for her students but...after seeing this post, I went to their website to play the sample games (a unit on fractions.) And although I love the idea behind it, I'm just not sure it will work for many kids. My DD is a VERY visual learner, as am I, and the games I trialed seem much too obscure for most kids to learn from. One of the games, for example, had the penguin riding on circles of various sizes (some quarters, some thirds, some halves, for example.) And one had to click on a number line to give the sum of those fractions--the penguin rolled along till the circles were depleted. I could do it because I know to make common denominators and add fractions, but there's no way just looking at circles with a half, three with 3/4 and 2 with 1/3, that I'd be able to tell how far the penguin would roll. I'm imagining kids guessing, not getting far enough, then guessing a little further, still not getting far enough, guessing two more times and then finally getting it right, while gaining no understanding of how adding of fractions actually works.

 

Maybe I'm wrong, maybe it takes kids who are smarter than I am, or maybe kids do absorb osmotically in the way they seem to with C-rods, but I don't really get how the program is going to teach, or even enforce concepts children already know.