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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'

• 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.