Today we explored prodigy as a classroom tool for teaching math. Prodigy is on online game intended to make learning fun! Students create characters in the game and explore the world by battling creatures and completing tasks. Prodigy can be used for Math or English but I have been playing to learn math so that will be the focus for today!

sample in game question

BATTLING in the game is done by answering math questions! If you get the answer correct your attack is successful and the opponent loses damage. If you get the answer wrong your attack misses. If a student is continuously getting questions wrong then the algorithm adjusts the questions to their knowledge level to ensure every student is learning!

my character attacking in the game.

ATTACKING in the game does damage to the opponent. The goal is for the opponent to lose all their health points before you to win. If you win you collect starts, new attacks and level up your characters!

completed quest screen in prodigy, take note of my characters there are so many to collect!

QUESTS can be completed in the game to earn more points and level up! As you continue to complete quests you also get chances to “catch” more creatures to add to your team. As you can see I already have Snowfluff and Rukus!

I found prodigy to be a lot of fun to play! By creating a STORYLINE to the game and QUESTS to complete I was eager to keep playing to grow more levels! This is a great MOTIVATION for students who may otherwise not engage in a math class! The game is super adaptable by the teacher to ensure students are sticking to the LEARNING OBJECTIVES. The teacher is able to set grade level and check the progress of the students. They can see who is playing, when they are playing and how they are doing within the game. The teacher can access statistics on which questions students tend to get wrong. For example if they notice students are getting 60% of the questions on division wrong the teacher will know to focus on division in the classroom!

PROS

  • engages students
  • adapts questions based off of student skill level
  • tracks student results for the teacher
  • addictive (I wanted to keep playing)
  • in game tools for drawing out the math problem- inclusive to lots of math strategies
  • fun
  • can continue learning at home

CONS

  • reward based learning, how will students react without getting points for correct answers (how to keep them motivated)
  • easy to cheat with access to a computer!
  • addictive (I wanted to keep playing instead of doing work)
  • requires access to technology for every student

Please check out my Screencastify for some live action game play!!!

scan the QR code to check out my screencastify