The popular Math Snacks suite of games, developed at New Mexico State University’s Learning Games Lab by NMSU faculty, is now available on Game Learning, a premier destination for online learning games.
With help from NMSU’s Arrowhead Center, the lab entered into a commercial licensing agreement with Game Learning to provide Math Snacks on its platform, which means Math Snacks is available to a broader audience.
“We are fortunate to have had two rounds of funding from the National Science Foundation for these games, and it’s important to realize the continued impact that funding has,” said Barbara Chamberlin, head of the NMSU Innovative Media Research and Extension department and the Learning Games Lab. “Now, these games are reaching players around the world, and we’re able to continue expanding Math Snacks to reach new content areas and new learners.”
Chamberlin said the successful development of Math Snacks speaks to the collaborative research taking place at NMSU, and to the support of the work teachers do to help students move toward valuable careers.
Math Snacks is a multidisciplinary research and development project originally envisioned by NMSU professors Karin Wiburg and Chamberlin, with additional direction by Karen Trujillo and Ted Stanford. The team collaborated on research over several years for the developed games, animations and learning tools, and all products were created by NMSU’s Learning Games Lab.
“People are surprised to learn we have a professional-quality game development studio here at the university,” Chamberlin said. “We have expert programmers, artists and game designers who do great work. One of the most important reasons for our success is the research our faculty partners do. Research informs the creation of the games and measures the impact. It’s an ideal partnership for faculty success.”
Math Snacks are games that convey math in creative, visual and applied ways. Mathematics educators, mathematicians, learning specialists and game developers collaborated to develop and test materials and conduct integrated research activities, professional development of teachers, and investigation into the impact on learners.
“Moving the scholarly and creative works of NMSU researchers out for broader dissemination, and societal and economic good is at the heart of Arrowhead’s mission,” said Patricia Knighten, director of Arrowhead Center’s Office of Innovation Commercialization. “Our new partnership with Game Learning, LLC is an exciting move toward realizing this vision.”
“Math Snacks have been conclusively proven to improve learning,” said Matt Massman, Game Learning founder and CEO. “Game Learning is thrilled to provide the platform for these outstanding games to reach a wider audience.”
Massman said Math Snacks joins more than 1,000 new games available on the educational platform, which was founded in 2017 and develops and distributes online learning games for K-12 students.
The full article can be seen at https://newsroom.nmsu.edu/news/nmsu-developed-math-snacks-games-now-available-on-gaming-platform/s/d5a05397-49c4-4630-9fed-45c7705ad35d