The first-graders in Christie Hoogendoorn’s class at Camas Ridge Elementary School in Eugene can hardly wait for a chance to play NumberShire, a new math video game. The game was jointly created by veteran computer game developers at
The first-graders in Christie Hoogendoorn’s class at Camas Ridge Elementary School in Eugene can hardly wait for a chance to play NumberShire, a new math video game. The game was jointly created by veteran computer game developers at Thought Cycle studio in Eugene and education experts at the University of Oregon’s Center on Teaching and Learning.
The kids rave about the web-based game, which teaches math through an engaging story and colorful characters set in the fairy tale village of NumberShire.
“It’s like a video game, except you learn more,” first-grader Levi Hawes said.
“It’s like math in a funner way,” added his classmate, Owen Volem.
“It’s awesome!” summed up classmate Zuzia Bownik.
Playing the role of an apprentice to a NumberShire elder, each student helps various villagers solve problems, progressing through the narrative and learning math along the way.
“The kids are engaged,” Hoogendoorn said. “They’re excited about it. They crave it.
“It plays like a game, and we all know that kids learn best when they feel like it’s a fun game,” she said.
Hoogendoorn also likes what she sees in her students’ math scores.
In recent standardized math tests, “95-97 percent of my class nailed the entire assessment,” she said. “It blew me away.”
Nearly 1,000 students have been playing NumberShire at test schools in Oregon, Texas and Massachusetts.
A small initial study of NumberShire, which has received funding through the U.S. Department of Education, showed that it can significantly improve students’ math skills. The Center on Teaching and Learning plans to do a larger-scale study across multiple states.
“All indications are there is something very promising here,” said Hank Fien, codirector of the Center on Teaching and Learning, which conducted the study and shares in the revenues NumberShire generates.
The study was independently evaluated by Oregon Research Institute, another Eugene-based research group with no financial stake in NumberShire.
Now the game’s developers want to spread the excitement NumberShire has sparked in Hoogendoorn’s classroom to more grade-schoolers around the country.
Realizing that schools are strapped for funding, NumberShire’s creators recently sent out a summer offer to 48,000 families across the country. For every NumberShire game families bought for $14.99, Thought Cyc