Intellivance has created a patented new way to make math learning fun. By making the learning of math incidental to having fun and playing, young math learners can acquire memory tools for math facts at a younger age with greater retention. Because this learning is fun and engaging, we remove fear and anxiety, replacing negative experiences with positive ones that make children WANT to play with math.
Intellivance PrimeSense meets Level IV evidence requirements in compliance with the “Every Student Succeeds Act” (ESSA). You can read more about our research findings and view our logic model and Level IV Report here.
Using math and music as a foundation, we developed our system through research and investigation into some of the most important concepts, theories, and approaches from many different schools of thought. Below you can see the foundational concepts that support our PrimeSense technology.
Number Sense is the ability to understand, relate and connect numbers. A strong number sense promotes flexible thinking about numbers and builds confidence and fluency. Number sense is often inhibited by over-emphasis on the memorization of math facts. The more we emphasize memorization to students, the less willing they become to think about numbers and their relations and to use and develop number sense. Number sense creates an incredibly strong foundation for computing and solving more complex math problems.
Parents, teachers, friends, and all members of a learner’s community can have an impact on a learner’s attitude, participation, and achievement. Helping entire communities to understand the value of understanding numbers and how they interrelate can help all learners achieve in math.
Our PrimeSense system exposes the prime factors of numbers to help learners understand how numbers relate and connect, as well as help them discover the natural patterns of math. At Intellivance we use visual illustrations, exercised in physical, digital, and musical play. This provides social enjoyment while exercising learners number sense capabilities.
To count is to recite numbers in sequence; whereas, calculating is to determine the value of sequences of numbers. Most educational math starts with counting and often learners struggle when moving on to calculating.
Previously, economic math was often seen as the only valuable form of math…this is counting math. Understanding how to deeply understand math and its meanings can help learners develop the 21st-century skills they will require.
At Intellivance we introduce calculating very early in the learning process. Young children can begin to understand the concepts of calculating even before they can count. Using active and open play, learners can explore math in ways that create engagement with more complex math calculating in an environment learners find fun.
Mathematical fluency has long been defined as the ability to recall mathematical facts and concepts quickly and accurately. However, this often leads to a burdensome focus on rote memorization. Why do we define fluency in mathematics as the ability to recall facts in a timed environment? This approach impedes and even alienates many young learners, triggering anxiety and fear.
Useful fluency is being able to create a foundational conceptual understanding and then combine it with strategies and methods in a way that makes sense for solving problems. Being flexible with thinking can create an environment with less math anxiety versus an environment that emphasizes instant recall of facts. By focusing on efficiency versus speed, learners can achieve fluency in the ways that best serve them. By using play as a medium to help learn math facts, learners find the new symbols more meaningful and thus become more memorable.
There are mountains of evidence that support visual thinking as a tool to spark memory and support understanding. This concept applies specifically to math and complex mathematical thinking. Being able to see how math relates to your own life and seeing how to solve problems as they relate to your reality makes it much more tangible, approachable, and meaningful.
The Intellivance PrimeSense system uses illustrated factor-based symbols that provide visual hints to spark memory, enhance recall, and support understanding of math. Our creative visual art (symbols) that is applied in play-based environments continually saturates learners in visual cues to a number’s meaning, then the repetition of play helps create lasting memory and recall.
Children are constantly learning, connecting, and engaging with their surroundings through positive playful experiences. They are naturally pre-disposed to play, it is how they understand their world. Play is less stressful, more rewarding, and requires less rigor than other learning methods. By engaging in math via play all learners have the chance to develop positive thinking/feelings about math. Play is an inherent part of daily childhood life and adding math to that can make it more socially relevant to each child’s life.
Using the PrimeSense system along with a combination of outdoor play, musical experiences, and visual arts provides tools for open play that is constantly evolving and enhancing exposure to math facts and identities. By playing in a math-rich environment learners first find learning fun, then that fun builds engagement which leads to a love of math learning, and in the end, knowledge builds.
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