Saturday, April 20, 2013

Splash Math: Grade 3 Application

2013-04-20_1205The iPad Application: Splash Math: Grade 3 is a great application to help students practice their math skills and the topics they are studying. From the start screen students can choose to practice their math facts, practice the topics, or play a series of questions evolving it all.

When students choose to use the math practice section of the application, they can select which skill they would like to practice: addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division. Students can also choose more than one skill to practice, such as addition and multiplication; and it will give them practice problems involving both areas. The students can then select the number rage they would like to practice, such as practice multiplication facts 1-5. Then they can press start and begin to answer math problems that involve the range and area that they or the teacher selected.

Then next area that students can choose from is the practice mode, where students or teacher selects what topic to practice. The 2013-04-20_1208practice mode contains all the areas of the topics the students are learning in class. For example, under the fractions section students can practice their skills in parts of a whole, add/subtract fractions, equivalent fractions, compare fractions, and then a mixed review. When selecting the section you wish to practice, the student must answer a series of questions to help them practice their skills. Then when the student has practiced with the different topics they may “Play” and test their knowledge on what they have learned.

In a lesson, this could be used as a station for students to practice their skills at what they have learned over the course of a unit or topic. This could also be used as an engage or explore piece of a lesson, where the teacher can see where the students are at the beginning of the lesson and how specific they need to when teaching the rest of the lesson. This application would be something that would be used as a review or a gauge to see where students are or to give them addition support and practice. I would not suggest using this application as a main teaching tool in a lesson, because it is not designed for that purpose. However, for a station in a lesson this application would be perfect.

To evaluate the application in the classroom, the teacher could get student responses to see how they feel about the application and if they think it is helping them or not. There is also a place at the bottom of the application for parents to see how well the student is doing at answering the questions. In this summary, it will also mention the weak and strong skills, based on the questions answered and will track the growth at the bottom. If a teacher needs data on how well the students are doing, they can see this in this area within the application. This application helps cover all areas of third grade mathematics and helps give students additional practice with their skills.

References:

[Untitled Photograph of Splash Math App Icon]. (2013). Retrieved: April 20, 2013.

[Untitled Photograph of Splash Math App]. (2013). Retrieved: April 20, 2013.