I have to admit my invitation to preview Mangahigh, was bitter sweet. Why didn't they have cool math games at school when I was a kid? Beautifully designed, and packed with fun and silly games, I barely noticed that I was actually studying math. Developed by a team of UK mathematicians and leading casual game designers, Mangahigh's team of developers have carefully crafted engaging and educational games to help strengthen teen's math skills. I personally had a blast playing through Mangahigh's clever casual games, and honed my skills in geometry, fractions (always a doozy for me), estimation, and yes, even multiplication. Guess what 8 x 7 is? 56! Thanks hungry penguin eating killer whale! I finally get it!
If you are a math teacher or after school tutor, I couldn't recommend Mangahigh highly enough. Mangahigh is proof that math can be highly enjoyable, and yes, even multiplication can be a ton of fun.
Visit Mangahigh's website at http://www.mangahigh.com/en_us/
For more information on Mangahigh check out our interview with CEO, and founder, Toby Rowland.
1. Gaming in the classroom is quite a revolutionary and exciting idea. How did your team develop this concept? Where there any major hurdles or difficulties convincing teachers?
When I was running King.com, I was struck by how quickly people built skills by playing the games we offered. I wondered whether we could change the games, and develop ones that taught useful skills.
I approached Dr. Marcus du Sautoy, Professor of Math at the University of Oxford to work with me on the project. Marcus had seen how much his own son had played games on the Internet and on his PS3. He accepted the challenge in helping develop a way help devise games where challenging math was an integral part of the package. Marcus feels math is a game. Marcus is now Chairman of Mangahigh’s Board of Advisors.
Teachers have been won over by the depth of the math and at how it’s embedded in the Mangahigh games. There’s only one way for students to achieve a high score: By doing the math.
2. Is Mangahigh an integral part of math lessons, or as a skills strengthening tool?
Mangahigh is the modern form of the worksheet. There is no more efficient means of practicing and embedding mathematical skills than playing Mangahigh’s games.
Specific Mangahigh games target specific areas of math. For example, Save Our Dumb Planet requires players use linear, quadratic and, eventually, cubic equations to calculate accurate trajectories of surface-to-space missiles that knock out Earth-bound meteors. The only way to advance is to do the math, so playing the games strengthens skills.
Rather than force feeding dry math content with anachronistic textbooks, Mangahigh intrigues and entices students with unique, curriculum-focused math casual games, while building competence with our complementary math eLearning system, Prodigi®. The math games and Prodigi® work in symphony to introduce mathematical concepts as part of game-play. Though repetition, students learn math so that it eventually comes to them automatically.
3. Why did you choose to use manga characters in your concept? Have teens responded positively to this decision?
Manga is a highly popular art form, but more importantly, one that often glamorizes school life, and extends it through fantasy. This is our plan for Mangahigh.com also.
4. How far will you develop the "manga" aspect of Mangahigh? Will there be online manga math comics included?
The community side of Mangahigh, which we are currently developing, will draw heavily on manga influences. Watch out for avatars, Teams, and competitions coming soon.
5. What are some of Mangahigh's goals in reaching students?
Students in the U.S. are lagging behind the rest of the developed world when it comes to math. The most recent Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) results ranked U.S. 35th out of 57 countries in math testing.
One of Mangahigh’s goals is to help underperforming students unlock and discover innate abilities and self-confidence so they can build core math skills that translate into classroom engagement and academic motivation.
6. What are some of your future plans for Mangahigh? Can teens be truly convinced
that math is cool?
Of course, it is cool to be good at games, but teens would like to be good at math too, and sometimes enjoy it. Many even think math is cool! But what we see is that many teens are unable to engage with traditional math learning materials for the time required to reinforce skills. That’s where Mangahigh comes in. The enjoyment of a subject comes from mastering it, and Mangahigh delivers math mastery.
For the future of Mangahigh, we plan to establish games-based math as a viable educational alternative for the majority of students.
