Math Panda is a free exciting educational game for K-12 students that will also entertain parents, grandparents, and other math enthusiasts. A wealth of precisely customisable mathematical questions that can be answered, or played, in one of four games.
Math Panda is a long term app which user will come back to time and time again. This app covers the basic four operations, but more importantly allows complete customisation of every element, including the operation selected, numbers used, question style or even the game played.
Upon initial entry the app can seem overwhelming with the amount of information presented, however, given the range of variables on offer it’s understandable why this is needed, and once the user is familiar with the design it is relatively logical to navigate and select the desired skill. When selecting one of the four different games on offer: Classroom, Concentration, Challenge or Comparator, the user is able to modify all element of gameplay and mathematical questions. Initially, they must choose the desired operation: addition, subtraction, multiplication or division, or a combination of these. Next, users can decide on how questions are presented: in a standard format (1+2=?), in a non-standard format (1+?=3) or as a multi-step or ‘complex’ question. The third option concerns the method of input, a feature rarely seen on other apps, and gives the user a sense of control: “choice” provides multiple choice questions, “keyboard” allows an input to be entered as a numeric answer, while “handwriting” enables the user to handwrite the answer which is automatically recognised (mostly). The final step involves selecting the numbers to be used in the questions presented – for children practicing their multiplication tables, this is ideal. The combination of variables available from within these selections gives the user complete control over the precise skill being practiced. For younger children, adult supervision will be useful during initial teaching, however, for older children or for those more competent, they should be able to guide their level of skills.
Concerning the four games, ‘Classroom’ mode presents questions in a standard format, where scores are marked instantly and tracked. The ‘Challenge’ level extends this feature, instead timing questions with a 2 minute countdown. ‘Concentration’ introduced a memory games, where the user must memorise the position of questions and answers before matching these together. Finally, ‘Comparator’ takes the learning a little deeper, requiring the user to calculate the answer to all questions before selecting either the largest or smallest answer. In addition, the app has a useful help section which is vast - mainly suitable for adults – that explains every feature in detail, perhaps too much detail for the children playing with the app. A further unusual feature concerns the ability to alter the font being displayed. As with other aspects of the design, it isn’t always clear what the purpose of the buttons are until the user reads the help section or simply plays around with this as a feature.
Overall, this extremely customisable app is worthy of a four star rating. Some further development to the user interface or simple tweaks would easily increase this to a 5 star rating.
