Math Up!

Our logo reflects our commitment to fostering math and problem-solving skills! The arrow shows user increase in math skills and interest!

Inspiration

Math Up! was inspired by two common productivity platforms, Duolingo and Quizlet. Duolingo has proven extremely effective and engaging in teaching new languages to young students through animations and sound effects. Quizlet has skyrocketed in popularity for the various modes it uses for students to learn their notecards of content. Math Up! applies these principles to math. We found that current math platforms such as Khan Academy or IXL lack the diversity in ways students can learn content, and only have basic quizzes. Therefore, we sought to create a solution that fused together the fortes of both these successful platforms into a new educational area: math.

What it does

Math Up! takes a more unique approach as its game modes enable students to learn content in newer ways aside from just answering simple quiz questions. Though the questions are multiple choice or free response, they’re introduced to students in a more engaging way. For instance, a student must enter in the correct response to prevent a falling “asteroid” from hitting their planet or they must click the correct multiple choice in order to keep moving on in a maze to reach the “treasure” at the end. Currently, our problems are aimed towards 1st graders to engage a younger audience in math. Math Up! uses an interactive points and leveling system to get students eager to keep learning, and the engaging game modes they can use will make that learning process more efficient and enjoyable.

How we built it

First, we created some utility classes like buttons and scenes. Then, we added some scenes into the game scene list, so when the user clicks on a button it shifts to another page. After all the scenes were created, we added consistency into the game, so when the user exits the game, it automatically saves the progress. We also created the experience and level system to make it more interesting.

For the help page, we used manim to create a short example on how to do multi-digit addition. Due to the time limit we only create a video for a specific example. This type of animation will play whenever the user enters an incorrect answer, enabling them to visually see their mistake and learn for next time.

Challenges we ran into

As with any prototype, we ran into a couple of challenges along the way. Our first difficulty was coming up with the idea. We specifically focused on the education gap in certain math learning platforms as many of us had noticed that even the most popular apps teach math in a rather straightforward and monotonous way. Identifying this gap did take a lot of time to brainstorm and research, but ultimately enabled us to find an area that needed our help. Our second difficulty was more technical. Manim is an animation engine we decided to use, but we kept running into installation errors. Thankfully, we consistently called and communicated throughout the day and were able to troubleshoot these errors. We are very proud of the fact that we were able to put together a functional final product in time. However, through steady communication, our team managed to push past all these difficulties and overcome the technical challenges we faced. All in all, our team had a blast making Math Up! and being able to take advantage of our strengths and weaknesses to make such a revolutionary, functional app!

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Overall, we are proud of getting a prototype done with our limited time and having a unique idea to show for it. In addition, we worked very well together as a team in giving everyone a role and ensuring progress was consistently made on our goals!

What we learned

From this experience, we learned a lot about collaboration, creativity, and team management. In terms of collaboration and team management, each member learned a lot more about their own strengths and weaknesses, which will prove incredibly helpful later on. As for creativity, our team definitely got better at identifying a problem and doing our research to see what can be done to address a certain gap.

What's next for Math Up!

We see lots of potential for Math Up! Our three main goals are to add on new game modes, put in additional features, and do community outreach to pilot test our app. For new game modes, we hope to expand from the testing format we have right now into more animations. Especially with Manim’s capabilities, we want to try out other engaging ways to learn content, such as running a “relay race” by quickly answering math questions. For our new features, we hope to expand our math content to grade levels 2-8 in order to appeal to a wider user base. In addition, we want to develop user capability to create an account, so that their progress can be gained across a variety of devices. Lastly, community outreach is a big priority for Math Up! We aim to serve underprivileged communities first and pilot test this at local Title I elementary schools. We will receive feedback and continuously adjust Math Up! to suit our users’ needs. All in all, our team had a blast making Math Up! and being able to take advantage of our strengths and weaknesses to make such a revolutionary, functional app!