Community reviews for Wowzers

This is a great tool to use with Elementary students to supplement their math lessons and reinforce their knowledge of the concept. It is very engaging and tracks the students progress through each lesson. Educators can modify and design a "path" (in any order they desire to) in which their students are to complete. For instance, this app enhances the student's understanding of a concept that if a student is absent from school, they can use this app to substitute and augment the classwork in which they have missed and to practice the concept repeatedly as they find necessary.

This product has two really great things going for it---it is engaging for students (especially those in grades 3-5, older students found the format a little childish) and it provides teachers with excellent data of student progress and concept understanding, even down to single question error analysis. It also suggests student groupings (in an RtI tier-type model) for teachers to provide targeted instruction in areas where students need extra support or enrichment. The program is pretty easy to set up and assign students to learning paths. However, while there is a 30 day free trial, the cost of the program is pretty steep. Approximately $30 per student per year was too costly to sustain.

Wowzers could be a choice for a teaching tool for some students. Individual feedback is given when a student makes a mistake and clues are given to help ensure success. Students who are on track and performing well, get to skip some of the unnecessary lessons. The difficulty level slowly increases for slow learners and a short video may even appear followed by another chance to answer the question. Wowzers gives a teacher as well as the student feedback and if needed slows the pace of instruction and adds additional lessons. This worked well with tutoring one on one and small groups of at-risk students.

The highlight of this app is tracking the progress for each student and the options to change the content for each student. I can see where the student would enjoy making their avatar however this process takes away from the educational time that the student spends on the program. The games are cute and the information is on grade level. I think the teacher would benefit more if the setup process was easier. The spaceship thing and the create avatar is very appealing to the students however has the app continues the engagement lessons.i Do like the way the game teaches the skill and a couple of different ways so all students have a chance to learn.

I was impressed with the practice problems and the way that each were used in a meaningful way: students were asked math problems in the context of the game which made it more worthwhile (it was not a worksheet or set of problems). The thoroughness of each Common Core standard was interesting as well. It was easy to identify which unit I wanted students to work on or practice. I would be interested in if there were two or three quests or lessons per standard: it seems like many of my students will be repeating that standard when they miss concepts or fail to master the standard. The one unit we practice (multiplication of double digits) required the students to replay the same activities. I was also impressed that I was given student results in real time. If I clicked on a student as they were completing an assignment or unit, the program provided data of their mastery level. I could also create multiple curriculum paths for a student to follow: whether with the entire class, a smaller group, or their individual level. From my computer, I could also push them into the path I wanted them in at that moment, without disrupting their progress from the other path. I also liked that I could chose from lower or higher grade levels based on my individual student’s need (without them knowing they were working on an easier task), and that the program automatically adapted to the level of help each student needed. I will note that the animations were not engaging for my 6th grade group. The mouths of the characters don’t move when they speak. The robot voice and the “human” voices were not of the same quality. You controlled your character with the arrow keys and spacebar, which was confusing to my kids at first. There was a bit too much backstory starting out -- be prepared to spend 15-20 minutes to allow students to set up and get into the program the first time they signed on. Also, be sure to write down student passwords, as the teacher is not able to find their passwords once he/she leaves the initial page where students are entered.

My main concern with the Wowzers program is the amount of time teachers and students must invest on the front end to get the program up and running. Teachers must create their classes, design their curriculum, and continuously adjust student groupings for intervention, while students might take entire days just setting up their avatars and getting used to the mode of gameplay. The blended resources provided by Wowzers are awesome and allow for flexibility in teaching, but overall your time may be better spent with a different game-based math experience.

It's a great concept and one of the few that incorporates Common Core type instruction. The assessment however was a pre-made 60 question test assigned by grade level. Not a good developmental assessment because if you want to pinpoint skills, you'd have to give multiple grade levels if your student is below grade level. You simply get a percentage of how they did on the assessment and a breakdown of questions right/wrong. The game play is convoluted and takes too long to go through. The voice acting is not very goad and the load screens take way too long. Since the "game" portion takes so long, I wouldn't recommend this for classroom time in place of core instruction. The students could tell it was poorly made and the game play was choppy (i.e. just using arrow keys and space button to move, a text box reading the voicing, a generic speech to text voice in some cases, etc.). Overall, I don't see a whole lot of value in Wowzers unless you actively manage lessons and have students who are into long gameplay.