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When his two young children struggled in math, University of Central Florida engineering professor Dr. Ron Eaglin gave them typical paper and computer math drills to help them improve.
Unfortunately, the drills failed miserably, as his children saw them as punishment and had little enthusiasm for learning.
Believing a more entertaining approach might work better; he designed a card game. Knowing it was lacking that WOW factor, he brought it to Wackadoos Grub and Brew located on the UCF campus and showed it to owner and accomplished businessman Dean Monaco to get Dean’s opinion on the game and to help in the business aspects and marketing of the game.
Dean knew that Ron had brought him something special, but he too felt that it was lacking the WOW factor and the POP that this game needed. That was when the two decided to bring in John Santo an accomplished designer to help get the creative juices flowing.
With the three working together, they quickly formed PyraMath, a fast past interactive game that has helped his children learn math while having fun. PyraMath has been so successful that, only a few months after he developed it, school teachers in Brevard, Seminole and Volusia counties are using the game –called PyraMath – in their classrooms.
Teachers say their students can’t get enough of the PyraMathtm and that it helps to teach critical math concepts that are part of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test.
“If we can catch them at this age level loving math and understanding it, their love of math will follow them into their future,” said Mary Timmerman, a fifth-grade teacher at Sterling Park Elementary School in Casselberry. “We’ve got to get them hooked now.”
Each of the 54 cards in the PyraMath deck includes a number from 0 to 9. Players use addition, subtraction, multiplication or division to build a pyramid of cards, and the first player to complete a pyramid wins.
“You’re not really thinking that you’re drilling the math into your head,” said Eaglin. “You are just playing the game and having fun.”
Eaglin said his children – Catherine, 11, and Anna, 10 – enjoy trying to beat him at the game, and sometimes they do because of their vastly improved multiplication and division skills.
Timmerman said that after she introduced Pyramath to her students, they immediately wanted to play the game at home in addition to during class. They also eagerly started using the cards on their own to learn about fractions.
“We try to make math fun and exciting because kids don’t like math,” she said. “How can you make it more fun and exciting? You make it more like a game. Their math skills are getting better. Students in one class didn’t know their multiplication tables, and now this is helping them with those tables.”
PyraMath can help children hone their foreign language skills in addition to math. Each card includes Spanish, Chinese, French and Arabic translations of the number listed, along with a Roman numeral.
The cost is $6.95 per deck, and teachers receive discounts for ordering multiple decks.
Check out more of our games at http://www.pyramath.com/pyramath_games.html
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