Not quite sure how you’ll get kids into mathematics beyond the basics? Osmo might have an answer.
It’s not always easy to get kids into school work for fun, though fortunately, there’s the odd app and gadget that can ease them in. While schoolwork is one of those things often preferred left at school, if you’re thinking that might be a good use of home time, there are things that can help.
Specifically, if your kids have an iPad — sorry Android tablet owners — mathematics could be made a little more fun thanks to a recent addition from Osmo, which has launched an app and peripheral addition to its Math Wizard series that sees its tablet camera-enhancing gadget go to work to help kids understand geometry by way of food.
The latest addition joins Osmo’s other edutainment choices which already includes options for toddlers, this time with something for kids 6 to 8. In the latest pack, Osmo is connecting geometry with the food used served up by a food truck, resulting in something that will allow kids to assemble a variety of on-screen food using physical shapes and pieces. Kinda, sorta.
Two games are in Osmo’s “Fantastic Food Truck” pack, which includes 58 physical tiles to assemble on-screen digital food via an iPad, using the camera up top to scan in physical pieces as kids set them out in the Food Truck part of the game. Another title, Carnival Crew follows a similar logic of setting shapes into other shapes, but goes without the physical objects and can be used entirely on the iPad.
“To teach spatial reasoning and geometric thinking, we found that shapes naturally occur in foods and cooking,” said Margot Herrman, Vice President of Marketing for Osmo.
“We ran with the food truck concept, which also lets kids be silly with crazy food combinations,” she said. “It’s a winning recipe that turns learning into delicious after-school fun!”
The concept does need an iPad to make the system work, or one of Amazon’s Fire Tablets, the latter of which isn’t typically found in Australia and is one of the few devices Amazon doesn’t make available locally. That’ll mean Osmo’s gadgets continue being primarily iPad only, and make that one of the main requirements to get its Math Wizard titles working, alongside Osmo’s base station, which is also needed, and adds a little extra to the pack price if you don’t have one already.
If you do, however, you’ll find the Fantastic Food Truck Math Wizard edutainment pack costs $100 locally, available at Amazon, Officeworks, and Osmo’s own site in Australia, alongside Osmo’s other Math Wizard titles.
