Playful math

The team that brought you Progress Wars now brings you yet another single page browser game.

This time, it might actually be useful. Probably not to you, though, unless you’re around 10 years old and learning about negative numbers.

See, my wife is a school teacher. She teaches math and has recently been teaching her pupils about those numbers that exist on the left side of zero. The fact that you can subtract 5 from 3 is a strange concept to a 10 year old.

She wanted them to practice by doing a bunch of simple subtraction tasks. We agreed that doesn’t sound like much fun, so I created a small game hoping to inject a little playfulness into the tedious subject of subtraction.

Check it out: Minus – a game of math

It turned out to be a big success. Everyone – even the not quite so math savvy pupils – enjoyed themselves. The most requested feature; a highscore list.

There must be a place for games in education, they seem very effective as motivators.