Do The Math was created in order to give students who have fallen behind in math the chance to catch up and keep up with grade level content. The program consists of workbooks, teacher’s guides, and physical objects, or manipulative materials that assist in explaining and practicing math concepts. 360KID was tasked with creating an application that simulated these manipulative materials and could be used with both Interactive Whiteboard (IWB) and a regular computer.
Starting with specifications from the client, we worked together to expand and adjust where necessary before programming them as individual ‘eTools’ within a dynamically generated interface. To handle the large quantity of data, the application was designed from the ground up to be modular in nature, with an XML configuration file used to tag each of the 360 lessons with the applicable tools and workbook pages that needed to be presented for each, allowing for easy future adjustments. Making sure that the interface worked well for IWB use was a larger trick than anticipated– it needed to be visible to seated children at the back of the classroom as well those seated in front.