About this project

In a few words - its an online interactive game that teaches kids math by engaging their imagination/competitive-spirit enough so they hopefully don't notice that they are learning - at least not before its too late ;-))

BACKGROUND

It all started as a university project in one of my classes last fall... We were supposed to choose between a few subjects that were traditionally difficult to elementary-level school children and select one that we could re-invent and make better.





The project was done in cooperation between my university and one of the more progressive elementary schools in the area, which allowed us access to real test subjects and their teachers.





It wasn't a surprise to anyone that the kids selected math as one of the most difficult and undesired subjects in school. More so, their teacher labeled the relationship between fractions and percentages as the "black hole of school knowledge". Which is also understandable in a way, since this is the area that marks a transition between "lower" and "higher" math - meaning, its not about useful stuff any more like "how many apples are left in a basket if I eat one", but basically about faith and practice. Faith, because kids are supposed to take for granted that 1/2 is equal to 0.5 and this is the same as 50%, without really understanding whats it all about and that they are somehow going to need this in the near future. And the only thing they can do to master this is practice.





Which brings us to the basic problem - repetition of something that you don't completely understand and don't find interesting is mostly doomed for failure.





Or is it?

THE BASIC IDEA

Well, what do kids at this age find interesting then? The first answer that comes to mind would of course be games. Mostly because its probably true.





Its a whole new generation of children that grew up with an abundance of technology around them - they play games on their PCs, consoles, cell phones, even their TVs. Its comes natural to them. Wouldn't it be then natural for us to provide content that they don't like disguised as something that they do like?





Of course "educational games" are not something completely new, but the problem with most of them is that they don't take children seriously. Someone that grew up with high-quality games all around him, and has experience with multiple electronic devices - is going to, even at a young age, know a "wolf in sheep's clothing" when he sees one.





We wanted to change that - to create something that is graphically superior or equal to most "no-brainer" games out there, but has an added value to it. To allow children to learn by exploring and use repetition to our advantage (which is something that one does in normal games anyway) in practicing something that they would normally have a hard time with.

WHAT IS IT? THE PROTOTYPE

The prototype was based on a concept of a memory game where you are supposed to find equal pairs in a field of hidden cards (or boxes in this case). In our game you are supposed to find 2 numbers of equal value, but one is expressed as a fraction and the other one as a percentage. The players are free to browse the values of the boxes, but once they select a pair, they either loose a life if its wrong or gain points if its right. Every level that they reach has harder numbers than the previous ones and more pairs/boxes to discover. It also brings new surprises and bonuses to keep things interesting.





One of the important aspects of the game is the exchange between the players. They are able to compete with one another in an online community-like environment and "defend" the colors of their school.





Please feel free to try the first prototype by yourself at http://www.lernmathe.com/ 


(please note its only an early alpha version with 2 levels and in German - but with very little text)

WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE? DEVELOPMENT

After the semester ended, our concept was such a success that I continued developing and financing it whenever I had time and money. However months have gone by and between classes and work, it has not progressed as fast as I wanted it to. Which is a shame because the kids love it and it really is something that could make a difference.





This is why I decided to take 4 months away from work this summer and work on it full time to finish it. And I'm asking you guys to help me out with it.





The following steps need to be done (and will be financed with this money):

• 
  
• make the short animated introduction film to explain the story (and explain how to play the game in a simple manner)
• 
  
• finish the level editor and create at least 10 levels
• 
  
• make a 2-player mode
• 
  
• make everything bilingual (German and English)
• 
  
• create/buy more between-level animations and sound
• 
  
• finish connecting it to the server side - basic community interaction and high-score list
• 
  
• basic marketing to inform/reach the first users
• 
  

WHAT THE FUTURE BRINGS

If enough money is raised (even beyond the targeted amount), I already have a few other ideas for educational games that could be used to explain other fields of math. In time, hopefully we would have a fully functional community/portal with various games educating generations upon generations of school children.





But we have to start from somewhere and by the end of the year I hope to have an active community online where children from around the world are testing their math knowledge against one another in a fun and effortless way. Its going to be bilingual to start with (German and English) and as such has the potential to reach more than half a billion of users worldwide.

WHAT DO I GET OUT OF IT? AND WHAT DO YOU?

I've done freelancing for many years and would love to finally work on a project that gives something back to the community.





Meaning - unlike most projects asking for donations - this one is going to be completely FREE and I'm not going to make money from it. I invested a lot of time, money and skill into it and will probably invest even more, but as corny as it sounds, if it has a potential to reach and change even a few young lives - it was worth it.





And you? You can help me do it!





Lets face it, educational projects don't have the best budgets on the planet - and this is probably why they in most cases fail miserably. But I have the skill to do this one right and will do it gladly + hopefully we'll be able to harvest the power of the Internet to also raise a minimal budget to finance the basic expenses for it.





Even if you are not able to donate, please spread the word - this one really is for a good cause.

MARKETING

Not only will you give something back to the community, your donation will get you a permanent link from the community/game-site to your own site. In most cases the link is permanent and will point to your site as long as our site is operational - meaning at least a few years. Given the amount you spent - it just might be the best marketing decision you ever made ;-)





Only the last 2 executive sponsor categories have a permanent time limit to them (but this is also around 2 years of driving traffic to your site) because they include larger branding packages. Those are also a good value and depending on what you do, could get you a steady stream of targeted user groups (school children, teachers, parents) visiting your site daily.





As you can see from the quality of the content produced until now - I do mean business with this site. It will get published, it will probably get featured in numerous sites online and magazines offline. Some schools will even use this site as part of their curriculum or homework. So it will drive traffic to your links too.





This brings me to my final warning - because the user group is somewhat sensitive, please don't ask me to link to websites/materials that are not suited for minors. I reserve the right not to publish any link that I deem inappropriate. Use common judgment - if you suspect its not appropriate, it probably isn't. If you are not sure - please feel free to contact me before you donate and confirm with me your link/content/site will get linked. If you donate without checking with me and I don't publish your link (because its just not suited or offensive) - you will not get your money back.

A FEW BACKGROUND INFOS

The old prototype is available here:

http://www.lernmathe.com/ 





My university (where the whole thing started):

Stuttgart Media University, Germany (My major is Information-Design)

http://www.hdm-stuttgart.de/ 





The elementary school where the initial tests and research was conducted:

Max-Planck-Gymnasium Karlsruhe, Germany

http://www.mpg-ka.de/ 




About me:


I'm an eternal student of the Internet, design and technology. Please check out the the prototype above as a testament of my skill or if you'd like to know more about me, please contact me directly.






... and last but not least:

THANK YOU FOR MAKING THIS POSSIBLE!!! ;-)