Using Math Analogies to Develop Critical Thinking, A Review.

3/15/2015

One of the things I wish had been emphasized for me as a child was the ability to put different facts together and use them to think critically about them. Ergo, as I am teaching my son I continually look for ways to help him learn to think critically about the things that he comes across.

Imagine my delight when I was given the opportunity to review Math Analogies Level Two for The Critical Thinking Company? It was great! I had another way to help my boy learn to think in a critical manner and become a better thinker which will help him well in the future.

Math analogies is a downloadable product, for Windows only. The goal of The Critical Thinking Co. is to develop better thinking students. In the product that I downloaded, they used math as the vehicle for doing so.

The start screen starts with the last person to use the program. One student can use it at a time and needs to complete it before the next student uses it as the program does not keep a record of more than one student at a time. The sign up is easy. It will ask for the student's name. As you can see it will show your first attempt and what percentage you are achieving. Where the white block is, is where the students name is located. You have four attempts to complete each question.

Each subsequent attempt will have it's own label. I have to tell you this, my son likes seeing his progress. He wants to see that percentage be above 70%. He was a bit bummed that he missed one on his second attempt as shown so far.

I have to say I like how they make it very clear if your answer is correct or incorrect. Do you see how for correct the words are in green and next analogy box is as well. For incorrect everything is in red.

One of the things we liked about math analogies was the sheer amount of variety in the questions. Fractions, pictorials, multiplication, clocks, money and more. I will suggest that before you actually start doing the questions that you actually take the time to read the instructions on how to play. As you'll notice from the picture below a system of dots is used. The dots that look like a colon stand for "is to" and the four dots together mean "as". It may take your student a bit of time to understand the system but once they understand it, doing the program will be quite easy for them. The question mark shows clearly what answer you are looking for.

It is an easy to use program in that there is a question with four possible answers given. Then it is just a matter of dragging the correct answer to where the question mark is.

Our thoughts
I have to admit, this program surprised me.
I thought my boy would take to it immediately.   He didn't. It did not intuitively make sense for him with how it worked.   I despaired having him willingly do it.

But I learned something... Time is important. My lad worked it out. He did!   He was happy and excited. "Mom!" He came to me. "I know how to do it now!"

We ended up using this critical thinking program 2-4 times a week.   We fit it in on a regular basis doing 5-10 questions at a time.

The initial dislike turned into a confidence booster. "Think we can beat it mom?   Think I can get better mom?    I know I can do it mom." I have to say how much I liked that boost in confidence he gained. Smiles and yeahs speak volumes to me.    His confidence in being able to figure out some "I don't know how to do this math" to "maybe I can figure it out math".   It's very good to see this.

When I asked my son what he liked he said:
"I liked that the questions are not all the same."
"I like that if I really don't know the answer I can guess."
"I like that some of the questions are really easy."
"The picture questions are really easy."
"I like that I can't cheat if I get the answer wrong. I have to wait until the next attempt to try to do it again."

What do I like?
The clear start up instructions.   I have to admit, I didn't make sure that my son had a really clear understanding of the dots before he started. I thought it would make sense intuitively to him as it did to me.   I was wrong. Reading over the instructions and letting him figure it out in his brain.    But what I have now is a boy who likes the program and willingly works at it.

Variety.
Words. Clocks. Fractions. Pictorials.   Blocks.   Multiplication. Patterns. and more.   Means that you don't get stuck on one pattern, that you can see math in more than one way, that the program is interesting rather than repetitive.

Ease of Use.
I found it very easy to use and almost had the program done before my son wrapped his head around it well.   Once he understood the dot system he found it easy to use as well.

Tracking of achievement.
My son found this to be an encouragement to know how well he was doing overall.

Downloadable Product.
Once I have it is mine.   This means if I have more than one student I can have each of the children work their way through it.

Other products being reviewed by the Crew are:

Alphabet Song Game (Windows software download) (Gr. Toddler - 1)
Math Analogies Beginning (Windows software download) (Gr. K-1)
Math Analogies Level 1 (Windows software download) (Gr. 2-3)
Editor in Chief Level 1 (physical book) (Gr. 4-5)
Editor in Chief Level 2 (physical book) (Gr. 6-8)
Pattern Explorer (physical book) (Gr. 5-7)
World History Detective Book 1 (physical book) (Gr.6-12+)

To read what the crew members thought of these products, do clink on this link or on the banner below.