We only took the decision to market MATHMANIA a couple of weeks before the show, so the demo which Martin has prepared for BETT '95 was produced in some haste. We therefore offer it to you in the hope that it will wet your appetite to purchase the complete pack when it is available towards the end of January. A text file containing the current draft version of the manual is also on this disc.
DISCLAIMER
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Neither Topologika nor Martin Goldberg accept any responsibility for the performance of this demo version. It is supplied 'as is'; you use it at your risk.
INTRODUCTION
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MATHMANIA is a maze game in which children have to escape from the maze by answering questions on: NUMBER (the four rules); TIME (12hr, 24hr clock and related questions); MEASUREMENT (metric measurements and units); ANGLES (bearings, properties, etc); SHAPE & SPACE (shapes, areas, volumes and properties); and LUCKY DIP (the computer chooses).
Questions can be at four difficulty levels, levels 1 and 2 corresponding to Key Stage 2 , and Levels 3 and 4 to Key Stages 3 and 4. Once children have escaped, they can tackle a puzzle before moving on on to the next (slightly more difficult) maze. Puzzles can also be attempted away from the game.
The program is designed to cover various different attainment targets (ATs) in Mathematics across the above Key Stages. This may sound ambitious, but the questions and gameplay have been carefully constructed to appeal to all ages. This appeal has been shown during extensive testing of the software.
Many thanks must go to all the school children at my school who helped test the program and made it a viable project. Also, special thanks to the children who designed a couple of the mazes.
Also, I must acknowledge Alan Senior's great book, 'Basic Wimp Programming' without which this program would never have been appeared on the desktop.
Finally, I should commend Dominic Symes for his fantastic editor !Zap, which made programming a positive pleasure and Dick Alstein for his very friendly Template editor.
Martin Goldberg
January 1995
RESTRICTIONS
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You can only play one maze and one puzzle at level 2. The questions are restricted to the addition operator.
The full version (see the draft manual) has five more mazes, four more puzzles, hundreds more questions and can be used to test addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.
There are four levels in all, providing an application that can be used over a wide range of abilities - (Keystage 2 to Keystage 4).
The full version will normally be available from Topologika towards the end of January for ú25 plus VAT plus ú2.50 p & p, total ú31.88, but if you collected this demo at BETT 95 it will be supplied for ú24.97 (inc VAT and p & p), ie at 15% Show Discount.
