This gem (or pearl) was found over at love2learn2day’s blog (a gem of a site for folks looking for math inspiration of all kinds – balancing concepts with skill practice, an impressive math book list, math games galore and more 🙂 ). Besides finding out about this app – I was very excited to find this treasure trove of math resources and expertise.
In this app you get to play a pearl diver who is told where the pearl is hiding on a number line on the bottom of the sea. If you dive to that number and avoid the electric eel – you get your pearl prize. Get at least 4 pearls before the timer runs out, with enough lives in tact – you get to proceed to the next level. The number line changes as you progress – first taking you through a basic 0 -> 10 line, then taking you into -5 -> 5, and then through a series of fractions (truth be told, this may go into more but this is as far as I’m able to progress…). There is a fun intermission between levels that let’s you cut some “sushi” as close to the fractional numbers as possible.
This game is very well done – and only wish it had a few changes/options to accomodate younger players. Sal has a solid whole number line sense and has been “diving” into negative numbers and fraction concepts – but could not quite react fast enough to finish out the level. What I did love was watching him count backwards to get to the right post faster if it was a higher number. It would be great to get access to the program to add a time variable option so you could increase the time for younger players. Sal was also pretty intimidated by the eel.
I’ll be on the lookout for a similar game geared to a younger audience. Oh, and I’ll have to get my practice in to get “Mom” on top of the high score board over “Dad”.
Cost: Free!
