Soccer Math Enters the Line Up
by Diane S. Kendall
Since I have an avid soccer player at my house I was most curious about what a new software title called Soccer Math from EdVenture Software had to offer.
In some ways it's a throwback to the heyday of drill and practice software which I still believe has its place in the software library of any classroom/school. Given that description, it's not hard to picture what you'll find here. Individual users choose to play on either a male or female team. Math problems are offered so that either you, as an individual soccer player, can practice your math or soccer (ball juggling) skills or you, as a teammate, have a chance to get out on the field and score. The quicker you answer a problem, the better chance you have of scoring.
One of the biggest positives about the game is that a wide variety of math skills that can only be truly mastered through repetition, which is what this game is all about, are offered up. Problems for practicing place value, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, U.S. measurement, metric measurement, greatest common factor, least common multiple, fractions, decimals and percents are all proffered in multiple choice style. This pretty well covers the 2 nd to 6 th grade math curriculum for ages 7- 14.
Players also have lots of options for customizing the game to their level and speed. For example, when you chose to practice addition, four different levels of problems are offered as well as three different speed requirements for how soon you must come up with the answer.
There is also a sense of humor in this game. A player who scores a goal is picked by her teammates and then dropped unceremoniously. These touches are somewhat unexpected and help endear the game to kids.
In a game if you don't come up with the correct answer to a question until the very last second, you get a chance to make it as a corner kick — always a very gratifying way to score. Once kids discover how this works, it seems to be the preferred way of scoring. My testers were heard to proclaim "Yes" in quite triumphal tones more than once when this "cheat" was discovered.
While the graphics and animation are good, they are not up to the standards many video gamers have come to expect. This may be an immediate turn off for some kids who have become almost snobs about the quality of animation in multimedia presentations.
I like this game because I don't think there has been any new drill and practice software for math facts for students this age offered in a while. Kids who like a challenge will love trying to beat the game, though, and if you have soccer fanatics who also need a math workout, this may be the way to go.
