If it weren't for the "math lab" designation, one might not believe the room full of Gilbert Elementary fifth-graders was learning.
At first glance, the students plopped down on bean bag chairs, intent on the iPads in their laps, appear to be having fun. They are. But they're also learning important math concepts as they turn into ninjas slicing and dicing numbers in one swipe of the finger on Factor Samurai, for example.
"An Apple blog wrote about my class and called it video games, but it's more than just games," said Gilbert Elementary School math lab teacher Jay Lemons. "The apps teach the students what I am teaching them. We have apps for counting money, telling time, adding, subtracting, multiplication and division."
He said through the educational math apps, students begin mastering the related math concepts faster. One game students particularly enjoy is the Motion Math app game in which they try to bounce a ball exactly where it needs to go to equal the fraction amount given on the game, he said.
"It gives them the concept of what a fraction is and they love it," said Lemons.
Other fun apps the students use include Rocket Math, Splash Math, Hyper Blast, Math Bingo and Math Munchers. Lemons said kindergartners in the math lab class play fun basic games like Monkey Lunchbox and Monkey Math. Using the Cake Doodle app, they try to pour the right amount of the ingredients into a recipe.
"I feel like I'm the perfect person to teach the students math," said Lemons. "Later on after school I realized that I should have paid more attention in math class, so I caught back up later on. I try to give them examples of why they need math in life. I want them to come in here have fun and realize that learning is fun."
He checks out the App Shopper website daily looking for free, fun learning apps to upload on his classroom iPads.
"We love iPads at Gilbert Elementary School," said Lemons, noting that the math lab has 27 iPads and the library has 25. "We have 130 and none have ever died."
He said students know how to take photos and create presentations on their iPads.
"It's amazing, they really know how to use technology," said Lemons, adding that when he first started teaching at Gilbert Elementary 14 years ago, students were just learning about computers, but now they know more than adults.