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.