Today, Korean startup KnowRe announced $1.4 million in funding from SoftBank Ventures Korea to help them bring their smart math education tool to the United States, soon after winning Google’s Global K-Startup Competition.
Traditional math problems are problematic
Today, Korean startup KnowRe announced $1.4 million in funding from SoftBank Ventures Korea to help them bring their smart math education tool to the United States, soon after winning Google’s Global K-Startup Competition.
Traditional math problems are problematic because they’re so complex. Take this simple algebra problem:
x/2 + 2/3 = 2
Even here, you need to know a handful of concepts: least common denominator, multiplication, and inverse operations, among others. If a student gets this problem wrong on a traditional math program, we don’t know why.
“Other products … can tell you did the student get it right or wrong, but what they can’t tell you is what concept caused that student to get it right or wrong,” explains Joo. The program would have to analyze multiple questions and see what concepts overlap to finally have an idea why the student is struggling.
To speed this up, KnowRe breaks problems down into their components. For the problem above, it would first ask you to find the least common denominator for 2 and 3. If you’re still stuck, you can get a hint and even watch a video on that concept. It’s like the technological equivalent of “showing your work” (and one of the reasons teachers insist you do so).
KnowRe will then generate problems that let you practice least common denominator, one of 800 math concepts they’ve identified.
The company wil