Games in city fair foster math solving
The stall of Champs21.com inside Bangabandhu International Conference Centre yesterday during eAsia 2011, a fair featuring information and communication technologies in Asia.Photo: STAR
There was only 20 seconds left before a “mad patient” had to be cured by solving the value of “x” in the equation “3+x=12”. Keeping his cool, Walid Hossain, a 10-year-old boy, clicked on the number “9” on the screen in front of him and the patient leapt up from the operating chair, all cured. This is not an excerpt from a sci-fi movie. Walid was actually playing an online interactive game at the stall of Champs21.com inside Bangabandhu International Conference Centre yesterday on the occasion of eAsia 2011, a fair featuring information and communication technologies in Asia. The game “MADMATICS” puts school students in the role of a genius scientist who has to solve arithmetic equations to cure his fellow scientists who went “mad”. Champs21.com, an initiative of The Daily Star, is offering a total of seven such games on its website www.champs21.com, the country's first e-learning site, to encourage students in learning mathematics. Located on the “MathStation” section of the website, the other games are BATTLE ORDER, The Adventure of Little Tonmoy, JAMUNA rafting, MONKEY JUMP, PRIME PLANET and Time Braker. “We incorporated different topics of mathematics like addition, subtraction, prime numbers, percentage, algebra and geometry into computer games,” said Russell T Ahmed, chief executive officer of Champs21.com. Playing the games will help students experience a better way to learn and sharpen their mathematical aptitude. Each game has multiple levels with the difficulty increasing gradually, he said. “We cannot deny children's interest in computers and the internet. We have designed the games exploring their field of interest in order to educate them,” he said. Each game specialises on different branches of mathematics. “A student weak in percentage should play Monkey Jump which is based on percentage. By playing till level four, he or she will surely attain good marks in class exams on percentage.” Russell said around 1,200 registered users are currently playing the games. The first level of each game is free and a subscription fee must be paid for the other levels. Another section of the website is “Mathoholic”, a game designed for real math lovers who want to explore more and improve their skills, he said. Math textbooks contain a fixed numbers of problems. “We incorporated 50 problems based on each chapter of the textbooks but which are completely new,” he said. The solutions are provided in detail in the website for students who might have difficulty in solving questions. Champs21.com in association with Designmate, a 3D production house, also launched a 3D video library in its stall containing 1,400 animated 3D videos based on physics, chemistry, biology and mathematics.
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