I was trying to think of something to write about and I was looking through my Twitter feed and came across a blog posted by @JamesHollis. His latest blog post "SMARTBoard Users - Mangahigh is Now Free" caught my eye. According to the web site: "Mangahigh.com is one of the world’s first games-based-learning sites, where students learn Mathematics via purpose-built casual games that balance fun and learning." The games are tied to core standards in the US. The resources page has user guides and lesson plans tied to the different games.
According to James Hollis: "Mangahigh creates exceptionally high-quality, game-based learning resources to help Primary and Secondary students reinforce their Mathematics skills in a way that is both fun and engaging. In addition to all the great resources, the service includes assessment and analytical tools that enable teachers to monitor the progress of individual students." So, I decided to look at the website. This site will work great on any interactive whiteboards.
First, you type in your school name and then click Register to create your free account. Fill out the registration information, make sure to use your school email address. Then you can add students by sending a class list to the Mangahigh staff, or quickly generate a student list. Then you can print out your student list for students to log into the site. As the teacher, you can set challenges for your students and then analyze the performance of your class.
To start looking at a challenge, click on View Activities. You can select the grade level (starts at Grade 2 - 12), and then look for a challenge to assign to your class. Once you find one, you can play it, or click on Challenges to assign. The image below is what you see after clicking on Challenges.
When playing the above game, students must quickly type in answers to addition and subtraction problems to blow up robots. This can be done as a whole class, a center where a couple of students are at the IWB collaborating on the answers, or in a computer lab situation. Students could even access this site from home for extra help.
Teachers can sort by grade level, course level, or topic level (after choosing a particular course). The courses to choose from are: Number, Algebra, Shape and Data. After each of these courses, are the number of games related to that course. If a teacher chooses one of the courses; for instance Data, a list of topics opens for the teacher to choose from. A couple of the Topics under Data are: Probability, Measuring and Comparing Data, Averages and Range, and several other topics.
Teachers can sort by grade level, course level, or topic level (after choosing a particular course). The courses to choose from are: Number, Algebra, Shape and Data. After each of these courses, are the number of games related to that course. If a teacher chooses one of the courses; for instance Data, a list of topics opens for the teacher to choose from. A couple of the Topics under Data are: Probability, Measuring and Comparing Data, Averages and Range, and several other topics.
I played a couple of other games and this looks like it would interest students and be a fun way to reinforce your math lesson. Why not check it out for your school? Remember, it is free!
Want more math resources? Here is a link to my blog listing some math resources and links to my Math Diigo library.
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