MathOps: Codebreakers

Division: Ideathon

Inspiration

The inspiration for MathOps: Codebreakers came from the idea of combining gaming with learning to make math more engaging and accessible for middle school students. I noticed that students, including myself often found traditional math methods daunting during middle school, so I wanted to create a fun, interactive environment where they could practice and master STEM concepts through gameplay. By using storytelling and puzzle-solving, I aimed to make math feel like an exciting challenge rather than a chore.

What it does

MathOps: Codebreakers is an educational game designed to help middle school students practice math concepts, including fractions, algebra, geometry, decimals, and probability. The game features a series of missions where players must solve math-based puzzles to progress through the storyline. Theoretically guided by an AI narrator, students will receive hints and instant feedback instantly to help them learn from mistakes. The main purpose is to allow students to tackle problems at various difficulty levels in order to improve their speed and accuracy, all in an entertaining way. The game’s interactive format makes learning fun and allows students to improve their problem-solving skills while exploring key STEM concepts.

How we built it

I built MathOps: Codebreakers using a combination of low-code tools like Figma and Canva for prototyping, alongside basic coding principles for game mechanics. The game interface was designed to be intuitive and visually engaging, while each math challenge was carefully crafted to teach a specific concept. The AI-driven narrator would be implemented to provide dynamic, personalized feedback to players.

Challenges we ran into

A challenge was ensuring the feedback system was clear and helpful without being too intrusive. Creating an interactive experience while keeping the game simple enough for beginners was also tricky, as we wanted to make it accessible but still engaging for a wide range of students. It was also difficult to completely plan out the style and format of the potential game without making it too complicated for kids in that age range to understand.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

I'm proud of the overall design and layout I came up with as it is definitely more interesting that games I've played in the past. The dynamic feedback system would also be more helpful by allowing the user to immediately get feedback and continually work on maximizing both accuracy and speed. Overall, I also liked how I managed to blend STEM education with gameplay in a way that’s both educational and entertaining.

What we learned

I mainly learned about the importance of user-centered design and how to present educational content in an engaging and accessible way. I also gained experience using low-code tools to prototype and learned how coding and storytelling can be combined effectively to create an interactive learning experience.

What's next for MathOps: Codebreakers

After learning the necessary skills, I look to actually integrate this into an app with the hope that the target audience (middle schoolers) will easily be able to access it and use it to refine their math skills. HOW IT CAN BE IMPLEMENTED... Design: Start with a web-based version using HTML, CSS, or JavaScript. Implement a main loop to handle storyline progression and feedback. Define data structures to store levels, problems, progress, scores and difficulty. Use algorithms to generate math problems based on the chosen difficulty and topic and implement logic to control the difficulty of the following problems based on the player's progress. Interface: UI - create an interface where users can input answers, view hints, and view immediate feedback. AI: Implement a simple AI system using pre-defined responses that analyze the player's performance. This will also help with the hint system. Storyline: Integrate math problem into a story where solving them helps player's progress. Final Implementation: Store progress, scores, and data with a database like Firebase. Eventually deploy game on a mobile app and get feedback to make further improvements.

Built With

• canva