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The article headline is a little sensationalist. It's very rudimentary, and it's more about learning limits than equations. That said, games like DragonBox hi

The article headline is a little sensationalist. It's very rudimentary, and it's more about learning limits than equations. That said, games like DragonBox highlight that kids are capable of being introduced to these concepts well before schools get around to it.

MichaelGG 13y ago
My 5-yr-old played DragonBox a bit - first for the colourful critters and powering up her monster, but then for the problems. It was pretty neat when I wrote down 2 + x = 7 and she was able to rearrange the equation to solve for x. (The later stages get considerably more complicated.) It's fantastic that kids think in terms of symbolic manipulation. Most adults still don't get that, and think maths is just about coming up with numbers.
- mathattack 13y ago
  I haven't figure out how to convert the on-line intuition into pen and paper. I saw a paper on their website. It still seems like a leap, when the kids haven't formally been taught multiplication, division and fractions. I'm glad that it worked in your case.
  - MichaelGG 13y ago
    Hmm, have you tried having them do the actual problems on paper? No numbers or letters, just copy the screen onto paper: Like write out: Side 1 | Side 2 Fly Box | Mushroom And have them solve into: Side 1 | Side 2 Box | Mushroom Inverted Color Fly ("Dark Fly") From there it's just a visual replacement to turn Box into x, Mushroom into a 7, and Fly into a 2. The game introduces "inverse color = -", so going from 2 to -2 should be a visual translation that doesn't actually require them to understand subtraction or inverse. After they're all done, they might notice "hey, wait, I recognize 7 -2 and it can also be written as 5!" But that's not relevant to manipulating the equation, is it? Sure, without arithmetic they won't be able to calculate the most simple form (7 + -2 -> 5 or 2/4 + 3/6 -> 1) -- but that's a different skill. And people seem to have more issues with handling the equation than actually doing the arithmetic part.

MichaelGG 13y ago

My 5-yr-old played DragonBox a bit - first for the colourful critters and powering up her monster, but then for the problems. It was pretty neat when I wrote down 2 + x = 7 and she was able to rearrange the equation to solve for x. (The later stages get considerably more complicated.) It's fantastic that kids think in terms of symbolic manipulation. Most adults still don't get that, and think maths is just about coming up with numbers.

mathattack 13y ago
I haven't figure out how to convert the on-line intuition into pen and paper. I saw a paper on their website. It still seems like a leap, when the kids haven't formally been taught multiplication, division and fractions. I'm glad that it worked in your case.
- MichaelGG 13y ago
  Hmm, have you tried having them do the actual problems on paper? No numbers or letters, just copy the screen onto paper: Like write out: Side 1 | Side 2 Fly Box | Mushroom And have them solve into: Side 1 | Side 2 Box | Mushroom Inverted Color Fly ("Dark Fly") From there it's just a visual replacement to turn Box into x, Mushroom into a 7, and Fly into a 2. The game introduces "inverse color = -", so going from 2 to -2 should be a visual translation that doesn't actually require them to understand subtraction or inverse. After they're all done, they might notice "hey, wait, I recognize 7 -2 and it can also be written as 5!" But that's not relevant to manipulating the equation, is it? Sure, without arithmetic they won't be able to calculate the most simple form (7 + -2 -> 5 or 2/4 + 3/6 -> 1) -- but that's a different skill. And people seem to have more issues with handling the equation than actually doing the arithmetic part.