Mathematics Program Is Sum Fun
The format for math education software was invented by a Palos Verdes teacher in 1982. That’s when Jan Davidson, working at home on an Apple computer in her spare time, created “Math Blaster,” a program that combined the addictive fun of video games and math lessons.
Every time you’d get a math problem right, you’d shoot a man out of a cannon, for example.
The idea made Davidson a very rich woman--”Math Blaster” became the program against which all other math educational software was measured. And even though most companies making educational software borrowed her basic premise, the company she and her husband built--Davidson & Associates--remained a powerhouse in the industry.
Current math CD-ROMs, including the latest versions of “Math Blaster,” are far more sophisticated than Davidson’s first program in their use of animation, graphics and music.
They use original characters, or as in the case with Disney’s math CD-ROMs, well-known animation personalities. But the premise is usually the same--teach basic math lessons within the setting of an action game.
It took Davidson’s company to break the mold.
Its latest math CD-ROM does not mess with the big premise, but it does get away from basic math. “Math in the Real World” aims to teach math skills by challenging users (ages 10 and older, according to the package) to solve everyday-type problems. The CD-ROM, playable in both Windows and Macintosh formats, has a list price of $39.95.
The story line of the CD-ROM is that you are called upon to help a little-known six-member rock band tour the country to play concerts in 10 cities. The band members will be using their proceeds to make a music video they hope will be their ticket to stardom.
As they travel in a van between cities, the action periodically comes to a sudden stop for a math problem. You have to come up with an answer before continuing the trip.
Some of the problems are pretty easy. For example: “We drove 130 miles to reach our gig. If it took two hours to get there, how many miles per hour did we drive?”
Fill in the right answer and you get money to use toward video production. Get it wrong a couple of times, and the band’s savings diminish.
The problems get tougher as you go along. For one of them, you have to get all the band members and their luggage on ferryboats to cross a river. You are told the weight of each person and suitcase and that the maximum weight a ferry can carry is 500 pounds. Your goal in this problem is to fit all the people and luggage on only two ferries.
Furthermore, as the game continues, you’re called upon to obtain meals for the band according to a strict budget, and you have to solve a maze-like puzzle (which has little to do with math, but is kind of fun) to periodically fill up the van with gas.
After playing a gig in each city, you’re given the opportunity to buy studio time to make a segment of your video. If you are able to buy 10 segments and thus make a complete video, your band is given the ultimate prize--a No. 1 ranking on the hit charts.
Even if you do get the big prize, you can play the CD-ROM again without much chance of running into the same problems to solve--in all, “Math in the Real World” contains 4,000 problems, the company says.
There is nothing technically startling about “Math in the Real World,” and you’d never mistake its graphic sensibility for that of “Riven” or even “Quake.”
But this CD-ROM takes a welcome approach to teaching math, and it’s nice to know its creators didn’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.
Jan Davidson is no longer with the company. She and her husband sold it to software giant CUC in 1996, and she now runs her own educational foundation. But her legacy lives on.
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Cyburbia’s e-mail address is david.colker@latimes.com.
