Review by Amanda Bindel, Common Sense Education | Updated December 2012

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Mathmateer

Name: Mathmateer
Item: Mathmateer
Rating: 3
Author: Amanda Bindel

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Rocket-flying physics fun launches between intense math drills

Subjects & skills

Grades This grade range is based on learning appropriateness and doesn't take into account privacy. It's determined by Common Sense Education, not the product's publisher.

3–6

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4 images

Chose from four operations and six levels of difficulty.

Answer math problems to earn money for rocket building.

Missions cover a wide range of math skills.

While soaring through space, kids quickly answer more math problems.

Pros: Covers many skills at a wide range of difficulty.

Cons: Flying a rocket well enough to accomplish the mission is challenging (and not math-related).

Bottom Line: Excellent tool for differentiated math practice.

How Can I Teach with This Tool?

With Mathmateer, students at a variety of levels can practice math skills and be appropriately challenged, thanks to the six levels of difficulty and numerous skill-based missions. The level of precision students or teachers can select from within each level makes it really customizable. Five different students can have accounts on one device. In a 1-to-1 or BYOD environment, students can work through a mission for daily skills practice in class or as homework. In a shared-device classroom, teachers could offer Mathmateer as a station activity for math practice. The free version doesn't include as many selections as the full version, but it offers enough that teachers could list Mathmateer as a recommended free app for at-home math practice.

What Is It?

Mathmateer is an educational arithmetic and basic math game. Students earn money to build rockets by solving addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division problems. Each operation includes questions at three difficulty levels -- easy, medium, or hard -- with the more difficult problems earning kids more money. When kids earn enough money, they design and build their own rockets, which can then be launched into space on missions. Kids help guide the rocket on its trajectory by tilting the device. Missions cover such topics as odd and even numbers, money, shapes, telling time, the four operations, fractions, decimals, and square roots, at six levels of difficulty, from novice to genius. When the rocket reaches space, kids tap numbers or answers that fit the mission as quickly as possible before the rocket reenters the atmosphere and lands. Kids are awarded gold, silver, or bronze medals if they reach a certain score for the mission.

Is It Good for Learning?

The depth of math skills covered is really impressive, and the ability to choose a difficulty level makes this a great tool for reaching a diverse group of students. The tricky part is figuring out how to play without any clear directions. After creating their accounts, students earn money by answering basic math problems from the four operations. Then they can customize their rockets and launch them into space. Again, with no instructions, it takes some trial and error to figure out how to get the rocket to fly far enough to make it into space and answer the mission questions, which include even more options. That could be a design flaw or it could be a way to have students practice problem-solving. In the mission, it's also a bit tricky to see the problem and quickly tap answers while tilting the device to keep the rocket in flight. Still, it's fun and really good math practice that will challenge students for several years (if not always), so Mathmateer is a great choice for math skills practice.

Rating Details

Overall Rating

Engagement Is the product stimulating, entertaining, and engrossing? Will kids want to return?

Space theme saturates the whole game, making the arcade-style play really fun. The placement of math problems in space is awkward, though, and can be hard to see in the heat of beat-the-clock play.

Pedagogy Is learning content seamlessly baked-in, and do kids build conceptual understanding? Is the product adaptable and empowering? Will skills transfer?

Although math isn't baked in to the rocket part, it is a physics-learning experience. The math content is rich, covering all four operations, money, time, even and odd numbers, and shapes on six levels, from beginner to genius.

Support Does the product take into account learners of varying abilities, skill levels, and learning styles? Does it address both struggling and advanced students?

Figuring out how to launch the rockets takes some trial and error since there are no instructions. Stats on the rocket's flight and on math problems answered correctly are reported, but not tracked over time.

Common Sense Reviewer

Amanda Bindel Classroom teacher

About our ratings and privacy evaluation.

Geometry

1.G.1
Distinguish between defining attributes (e.g., triangles are closed and three-sided) versus non-defining attributes (e.g., color, orientation, overall size); build and draw shapes to possess defining attributes.
2.G.1
Recognize and draw shapes having specified attributes, such as a given number of angles or a given number of equal faces.5 Identify triangles, quadrilaterals, pentagons, hexagons, and cubes.

Measurement And Data

1.MD.4
Organize, represent, and interpret data with up to three categories; ask and answer questions about the total number of data points, how many in each category, and how many more or less are in one category than in another.

Number And Operations In Base Ten

1.NBT.4
Add within 100, including adding a two-digit number and a one-digit number, and adding a two-digit number and a multiple of 10, using concrete models or drawings and strategies based on place value, properties of operations, and/or the relationship between addition and subtraction; relate the strategy to a written method and explain the reasoning used. Understand that in adding two-digit numbers, one adds tens and tens, ones and ones; and sometimes it is necessary to compose a ten.
2.NBT.2
Count within 1000; skip-count by 5s, 10s, and 100s.
2.NBT.4
Compare two three-digit numbers based on meanings of the hundreds, tens, and ones digits, using >, =, and < symbols to record the results of comparisons.
2.NBT.5
Fluently add and subtract within 100 using strategies based on place value, properties of operations, and/or the relationship between addition and subtraction.
2.NBT.8
Mentally add 10 or 100 to a given number 100–900, and mentally subtract 10 or 100 from a given number 100–900.

Number And Operations—Fractions

3.NF.3.b
Recognize and generate simple equivalent fractions, e.g., 1/2 = 2/4, 4/6 = 2/3). Explain why the fractions are equivalent, e.g., by using a visual fraction model.

Operations And Algebraic Thinking

1.OA.5
Relate counting to addition and subtraction (e.g., by counting on 2 to add 2).
1.OA.6
Add and subtract within 20, demonstrating fluency for addition and subtraction within 10. Use strategies such as counting on; making ten (e.g., 8 + 6 = 8 + 2 + 4 = 10 + 4 = 14); decomposing a number leading to a ten (e.g., 13 – 4 = 13 – 3 – 1 = 10 – 1 = 9); using the relationship between addition and subtraction (e.g., knowing that 8 + 4 = 12, one knows 12 – 8 = 4); and creating equivalent but easier or known sums (e.g., adding 6 + 7 by creating the known equivalent 6 + 6 + 1 = 12 + 1 = 13).
2.OA.1
Use addition and subtraction within 100 to solve one- and two-step word problems involving situations of adding to, taking from, putting together, taking apart, and comparing, with unknowns in all positions, e.g., by using drawings and equations with a symbol for the unknown number to represent the problem.1
3.OA.7
Fluently multiply and divide within 100, using strategies such as the relationship between multiplication and division (e.g., knowing that 8 × 5 = 40, one knows 40 ÷ 5 = 8) or properties of operations. By the end of Grade 3, know from memory all products of two one-digit numbers.
4.OA.5
Generate a number or shape pattern that follows a given rule. Identify apparent features of the pattern that were not explicit in the rule itself. For example, given the rule “Add 3” and the starting number 1, generate terms in the resulting sequence and observe that the terms appear to alternate between odd and even numbers. Explain informally why the numbers will continue to alternate in this way.

Teacher Reviews

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Featured review by
Colleen M. , Classroom teacher

Classroom teacher

Lakeshore Elementary School
Holland, United States

Good for drill and practice with fun rewards!

I think that this is a great app for drill and practice. The students are motivated by the rewards and it makes them want to practice more. My students also loved being able to see what things would make the rocket fly higher. There are several math apps out there that do the same thing so it all depends on how your students respond to each one. My students LOVED being able to build a rocket and launch it (especially my boys). I like that I can differentiate based on a students needs (addition, ...

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