Wuzzit Trouble - A Math App with a Difference

As I mentioned in a previous post about educational apps, far too many apps that are published and used in the classroom consist of 'drill and skill' games designed purely for practising skills that have already been learned.  It is hard to see the educational value in these beyond mastery of times tables or quick visualisation of angles for example.  Sure it's useful to be able to do things quickly but the real question is whether they actually add anything other than bells and whistles to traditional tabletop games often played in class.  Do the children really have any more motivation or enjoyment because of the brightly coloured, noisy and interactive nature of the games or are they really just slightly less boring?

Wuzzit Trouble is different.  Designed by Brainquake games (whose co-founder is Stanford mathematician Dr. Keith Devlin), the app goes beyond 'drill and skill' to become an instrument upon which to learn maths.  Instead of simply practising known skills, Wuzzit Trouble teaches problem solving, mathematical concepts and critical thinking all seamlessly interwoven with enjoyable and engaging gameplay that's hard to put down.  I have tried many times to engage my ten year old son with educational apps and they just don't do it for him.  Yes, he would rather practise his times tables on an app than on paper but I certainly wouldn't go so far as to say that he enjoys it.  Wuzzit Trouble, on the other hand, had him hooked from the first level, begging to work out just one more puzzle.  He even exclaimed "It's educational, I know it's educational and I don't care!".  Recommendations don't come much better than that.

The aim of the game is simple.  Collect the keys to release the 'wuzzit' from his cage.  This is achieved by rotating the small cogs in different directions to move the larger wheel to the correct number.  The levels becoming increasingly harder as the game progresses but there is a nice gradual difficulty curve to it.  There are additional trophies to collect that increase the difficulty of particular levels and in order to gain a three star rating the 'wuzzit' must be saved in a certain number of moves or fewer.

 

Here is Dr. Devlin talking about the game.

 

 



What's different about Wuzzit Trouble? from Keith Devlin on Vimeo.

I really like this app.  I can see it's educational value and it's backed by research from Stanford researchers Holly Pope, Jo Boaler (there's a name you want to hear linked to endorsing a maths app!) and Charmaine Mangram.  I can really see this fitting in to maths lessons as a starter or for ten minutes at the end of the lesson and can only imagine that it would be a big hit with the children.

Read more about the research here.