Engagement

Whether Harley was engaged in NumBots was not even a question! In Caroline’s words, he is ‘hooked’! What captured Harley’s interest the most appeared to be the ability to customise his bot through collecting coins.

Children receive coins for every correct answer they provide, which they are then able to spend in the Custom Shack. Here, they can personalise their bot with different parts from a selection of themed robots; from Llamas, to Gumballs, to DJs – the Custom Shack is very popular. After the progress he has made, we are sure he has many coins to spend!

Some of Harley’s bot designs – straight from the Custom Shack!

Educational Impact

The primary aim of both our platforms is simply to facilitate the development of children’s mathematic ability. So, to hear from Caroline that Harley is now working at a greater depth since playing NumBots, we think that is high-five worthy at Maths Circle HQ!

Harley and his certificate collection! He has only been playing since February 2021!

Safety

Keeping children safe on our platforms is paramount to us. We go to great lengths to ensure they are protected; we offer a child-friendly privacy notice, no chat facilities, adverts or in-app purchases. Furthermore, children have strict anonymity, instead playing under ‘bot names’.

Caroline also identified this crucial element of the game, indicating that she “never felt that NumBots was an unsafe app for Harley to use independently”.

Setting Up

For parents whose children have an account through their school, it is a piece of cake to manage.

Children are given their own unique login details which they can use to log into any device via its web browser or the app (using a child-friendly pin), which is free to download. This gives children the ability to switch between devices and easily access NumBots at home, at school or on-the-go, whichever devices are available to them.

The programme has been specifically designed for primary school aged children to use. Caroline told us that Harley, a Year 1 pupil, was confident in using it independently, and will often play whilst his parents work! 

And for parents or carers whose children have a family account…it is also a piece of cake to manage!

After downloading the app or signing up on a browser, parents or carers are simply required to register their details, and they are live! Up to three children can play on one family account.

Although it doesn’t have to be completely hands-off! Parents or carers can access ‘Today’s Data’, which provides daily and weekly stats on: Minutes Played, Coins Collected, and Levels Unlocked.

Help articles are also available on the website:

• Registering
• Logging in

Practice makes perfect…

…and the practice pays off! 

Interested in purchasing a family subscription to NumBots?

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Recently, a unique opportunity opened up for us here at Maths Circle. We were able to conduct a case study differently to our usual format. With Pound Hill Junior School, we were able to speak with the school’s ‘Digital Leaders’ – a group of students from Year 3 to Year 6 who specialise in developing and reviewing the school’s digital programme. Having been avid TT Rock Stars users since 2016, their computing lead, Sam Berry, decided to try NumBots on a four-week trial. Following their trial, we sat down with Sam and the pupils from Year 3, 4, 5, and 6 to discuss their feedback. For the children, it was a chance for them to show us their innovative flair; providing us with new ideas on how to improve the game, as well as feedback on what they already like about NumBots.

The Digital Leaders also sent some of their awesome bot designs, so look out for those throughout this article!

CUSTOM SHACK

What did the Digital Leaders like?

In discussing the Custom Shack, it was evident what makes it so popular:
The ability to customise their bot appeared to be extremely popular, as well as those who like to browse the many, many parts!

What do the Digital Leaders want to see? 

When asked whether the children preferred saving or spending their coins, a strong preference of saving over spending emerged. More specifically, many indicated the purpose of their saving was to afford particular pieces that they aimed to work towards. As a result of this, there were a few suggestions for additions that would facilitate their coin saving.

SCRAP BOOK

What did the Digital Leaders like?

A relatively new feature of the Custom Shack, we were especially eager to hear the children’s opinions – and we were not disappointed! The Scrapbook enables the children to save and revisit old designs. Considering we had already established that the robot customisation element of the game was extremely popular, it made a lot of sense that they loved this feature.

What do the Digital Leaders want to see? 

As a popular feature already, there wasn’t much of a response on how we could improve the Scrapbook. However, the Digital Leaders still had some suggestions for us of course! Unsurprisingly, they wanted more space for their previous bots, as the limit is currently 10 designs.

LEADERBOARDS

What did the Digital Leaders like?

Dissimilarly to TT Rock Stars, the Leaderboards are not a prominent feature of NumBots, however they became a discussion topic with the Digital Leaders from Pound Hill nonetheless. The Leaderboards received a varied response, some preferred earning and saving coins, whereas some found it an integral part of their NumBots experience! According to some of the pupils, the Leaderboard is a source of motivation for improvement. Two girls explained to us that the ability to compare their score to others provided them with inspiration to improve their score. Another used the Leaderboard to set herself goals and targets.

What do the Digital Leaders want to see? 

An interesting outcome from this conversation was that many children find their sources of motivation elsewhere. Therefore, when it came to discussing what they would change or add, we received an insight into different ways children find motivation. One student suggested that a reward for daily practise would act as an incentive to play more. Another suggested for us to introduce a designated ‘Best Scores’ area, where they can save and revisit their top scores.

BADGES

What did the Digital Leaders like?

When asked about badges, we received a lot of thumbs up. Another popular feature of the game, it was apparent that the children find them rewarding as it provides them with something to work towards. This type of motivation then inspires them to continue practising and therefore progress onto the next level.

What do the Digital Leaders want to see? 

It was evident that the sense of achievement the children feel when they receive their badges provides them with a sense of pride, therefore there were suggestions for badges earned to appear in the Custom Shack.

CONCLUSION

To round up, we left this special meeting with a lot of points to think about! If you strongly agree, or perhaps disagree, with any of the Digital Leaders’ suggestions, then please email us at support@mathscircle.com! Alternatively, pop us a message on any of our social media channels (see the icons below). Once again, thank you to the wonderfully innovative Digital Leaders from Pound Hill Junior School – keep your eyes peeled for changes suggested by you!

All three teachers agreed that pupils were showing a high level of engagement with NumBots. When we began to discuss the reasons behind the children’s attitudes towards the programme, certain trends began to emerge. Particularly, it was noted by Joe Dixon that the lack of time pressure on NumBots resulted in children’s playing experience becoming more enjoyable. Although the competitive nature of Times Tables Rock Stars is a crucial contributing factor to its popularity, some children feel that the removal of the competitive nature of NumBots allows them to develop positive attitudes towards maths – especially those who are slightly weaker or less confident with numbers.

Additionally, Joe indicated that the children benefit from the ability to earn coins quickly, as it allows them to experience a sense of achievement and success. This extra level of engagement has resulted in the children becoming motivated to continue their practise at home.

All three teachers identified the common issue relating to a ‘fear of maths’; that sometimes there are negative stigmas associated with maths. The teachers found that NumBots had helped to reinforce and identify number patterns, which combined with the ability to earn coins faster, allowed children to grow confidence. This growth in confidence is essential in helping children to overcome fears related to maths.

Although only having trialled NumBots for a short period at the time of our meeting, all three teachers were noticing the impact that NumBots was having on the children’s learning. For instance, Joe told us about a particular pupil who had scored highly in a recent exam, which he mainly attributed to his hard work and extra practise on NumBots, where the pupil had answered over 700 questions.

They also found that the programme had had other types of positive impact. We also heard how NumBots had helped pupils with certain learning characteristics. For example, Sam told us of a child who was showing signs of perseverance and determination to complete the programme, whereas before they had been struggling with their confidence. This type of positivity was evident across all three teacher’s classes, with NumBots giving children who were potentially weaker at maths the confidence to shift their attitudes towards maths into a positive direction. This desire to succeed at NumBots was then taken home – a pupil in Justine’s class had even racked up an impressive 13 hours of practise!

Clare takes her class to the ICT room for 20 minutes of NumBots practice everyday. These sessions are supplemented with additional resources:
– Number lines to 20
– 100 squares
– Tens and ones dienes
– Numicon
– Doubles and halves fact sheet

Using the ‘Stats’ function, Clare is able to access actionable data. This is a useful tool that allows teachers to track their pupils’ progress and levels of engagement.

Those children that tend to struggle can be supported further. The exclamation mark icon enables Clare to identify which level individual students find particularly difficult.

Teachers can reward and celebrate the effort and progress of their pupils with auto-populated certificates that can be downloaded from the Certificates Hub. This positive reinforcement helps to boost their motivation.

So, did NumBots make a difference to Clare’s Year One class?

In order to determine how productive the daily trips to the ICT had been, Clare set the class a test after one term of using NumBots. The results were highly indicative; the children had produced the highest standardised scores Clare had ever seen, strongly suggesting that NumBots had made a substantial positive impact on the mathematical development of her class. Or in the words of Clare “NumBots gave them wings with their counting!”.