Team members:

Storyboard Comments

Design and sound will be very important for appeal.

Contrary to other opinions, I think it's good that you are focusing on fast multiplication and emphasizing that each individual has the ability to get 100%.

Perhaps the issue of inferiority arises in other aspects of the classroom; the teacher may have suggestions for dealing with it.

Storyboard Questions and Answers

Q: What can this program offer that is not currently being offered?
A: In class, we often talk about how software affects students and how software affects the classroom. Our program changes the classroom dynamics by allowing the teacher to spend more time on other activities, and allowing the program to help the students learn their multiplication tables. Our program is a tool, which provides some new conveniences for the students and for the teacher.

Q: Is the game distracting from the original purpose of the Mad Math Minute?
A: The original purpose of the Mad Math Minute is for the students to practice their multiplication tables, and to have fun and be motivated while doing it. We have not added anything to the structure of the Mad Minute other than the Hall of Fame and the animations. The animations will not occur at the same time as the Mad Minute, only before and after.

Q: How extensible will the Mad Minute be? i.e. more kinds of problems
A: The scope of our program is to practice basic arithmetic. There are very few different types of arithmetic problems. If you can think of other possible extensions, please let us know.

Q: Will there be a tutorial?
A: One goal of this program is to allow the students to practice their memorization of math facts. We cannot imagine any tutorial to help the students memorize these math facts.

Q: How about including a screen with the multiplication table?
A: This is an idea that we are considering, perhaps adding a multiplication table / reference section to the main menu. If a student wanted to find out the product of 4 and 7, he would click on 4 and 7 and the 28 would become highlighted.

Q: How beneficial is competition?
A: The friendly competition between the students works productively in the classroom now. We don't foresee any difficulties with this with the program. The Mad Minute is something to make memorizing the multiplication tables fun and in our observations of the classroom, it has only been beneficial.

Q: The issue of inferiority of the students is something that should be looked into. What if one person consistently does so well that their name is on, say, 7 of the top 10 spots? Could the Hall of Fame feature lead students to feel like a failure if they could never make it to the top of the list no matter how hard they tried? What methods can be devised to make all of the students feel successful?
A: If a student will feel inferiority with the Mad Minute, they will feel inferiority in the current paper and pencil method. We feel that this is an issue that the teacher will be more qualified to handle as she will be able to see the students reactions to using the program.

Q: Can the Hall of Fame be identified differently?
A: This is the temporary name that we chose for this section of the program, and it is, by no means, our final name. We like "Hall of Madness."

Q: How about charting personal progress in addition to/instead of the Hall of Fame? What about showing the problems they need to work on?
A: We have thought about this. We actually thought of this before the Hall of Fame. We wanted to chart the improvement that each individual student makes, maybe with a line graph. When we mentioned it to Ms. DiPrete, she brought up using the Hall of Fame instead.

Keeping track of each student's progress will be a File I/O challenge. Depending on how well the File I/O goes, this might be a possible extension of the program.

Q: About the option to quit during the Math Minute... what happens if the child quits? Does the game continue or does that end the minute? What will prevent children from getting discouraged and just quitting all the time?
A: The purpose of having the quit button is to be able to quit out of the Minute if class ends and the students have to leave. To prevent students from being discouraged, we may direct or push students towards studying the reference multiplication table after they quit.

Q: Will there be a system for the teacher to evaulate the students?
A: The teacher, and only the teacher will have access to all the students' progress. We were previously thinking that the teacher will have access to the data file. However, one of the comments we got after the presentation talked about allowing the teacher to access the grades through a password protected part of the program. We are considering this suggestion.

Q: Do you have to do individual times tables? What if you want to do a mixed test?
A: After the students have completed all of the levels, they will be able to do mixed problems.

Q: What type of input? Keyboard or mouse and keyboard?
A: During the timed test, the input will solely be from the keyboard. Navigation through the other parts of the program will be through clicking on buttons on the screen.

Q: Does the teacher have standard levels that the students need to achieve?
A: Students must score 100% on a sheet of "math facts" in order to advance to the next level.

Q: Will the kids be able to see which ones they got wrong? right?
A: After the completion of the Minute, we will probably go over the math facts which were answered incorrectly, or let them try again.

Q: What happens when they get a lot wrong?
A: If they answer many problems incorrectly, we can direct them to the reference multiplication table so that they can study the ones that they don't know.

Q: Can something happen to show an answer is wrong?
A: The way the students do their Mad Minute on paper, they do not know if they answered correctly or incorrectly until the papers are handed in and graded. Our computer program will operate in a similar way. If a student already knows that they have missed a problem and the objective is to get 100%, will they give up on the remaining problems? The idea of the mad minute is to just go through the questions as fast as they can, not to dwell on whether their answers are correct.

Q: Is there a way to make the design/characters cohesive and relevant to the game? Does the mascot have a purpose?
A: Our adorable turtle will serve as a guide, and to give encouragement. See also meeting notes.

Q: At the harder levels, will the turtle's task be more difficult?
A: We will do as many animations as possible. One goal could be to have a different animation for each level, but we will have to see how many animations we can create.

Q: How about administrative tools for the teacher?
A: This is a good suggestion. Administrative tools could be used by the teacher to clear the Hall of Fame, maybe access the students' progress. If you can think of anything else, please let us know.

Q: With no password, will students be able to advance everyone or edit the data file?
A: This is a serious issue that we have to consider and we don't have any easy solutions.