Dragon Box Slays Algebra Anxiety
i love Dragon Box! This app offers students
an intuitive way to learn how to balance
algebraic equations. The game starts
with players balancing icons and pictures,
and eventually they work their way up to
variables. The game helps students grasp the concept
that positives and negatives cancel each other out by de-
picting night and day versions of the same character, who
equal zero when combined. Players learn about equality
when they discover that whatever you do to one side of
the screen, you must do to the other side to get the dragon
box (x) by itself. Players try to unlock all the levels to earn
and collect all the dragons in the game.
My daughter, who is 11, adores this game. i also use it in
my classroom as an end-of-period activity to engage and
inspire students to learn equation solving. My Algebra i students love to come to the board and help each other beat
the levels. in fact, kids have so much fun they don’t even
realize they are building the foundation to solve equations.
Platforms: Android, iOS
(also available on Macs and PCs)
Cost: $5.99
Kristan Morales teaches high school math at Chaparral High School in Temecula, California, USA. She has a master’s degree in educational technology from Azusa Pacific University in California. She is slated to present at the California Math Council Conference about her Common Core Algebra 1 project. View her project at edcvs.co/10VdkFa.
Here are a few more algebra apps that our members recommended:
Algebra Touch: Practice algebra functions, such as
simplification, factorization, basic equations, and more.
iOS; $3.99
Mathemagics Easy Algebra Fast: Learn to think
differently about algebraic equations.
iOS; $1.99
Coverup: Cover up the challenging part of the equation to make it more intuitive to solve. iPad; free
Factor Race: Move around the track to the finish line as you factor equations correctly. iOS; $0.99
Function Mystery Machine: Guess the mystery function with the help of your Algebra Machine. iPad; free
Lion Grapher: See how many lions you can get with linear equations before the time runs out! iPad; free
Math Doodles: Play, explore, and experiment with mathematical concepts. iPad; $2.99
Pointplotter: Test your knowledge of the 2D coordinate system. iPad; free.
Shuttle Mission Math: Find the weight of space creatures to assemble a space mission team. iPad; free
Submariner Algebra: Using the y = mx + b equation format, guess the location of your opponent’s sub. iPad; free
Tic Tac Math Algebra: Practice linear equations, quadratics, exponentials, and systems of equations. iOS; $1.99
Tortoise and the Hare Algebra: Explore rates of change in the race between the tortoise and the hare. iPad; free
Got an app for that? email a description of your favorite app to dfingal@iste.org.
