MathTappers: ClockMaster - a math game to help children learn to read clocks

MathTappers: Clockmaster is a game to help children make the connection between hours and minutes and to help them become fluent in both reading and setting time on digital and analog clocks.
Special offer! Free until September 30, 2011.

Time is a topic that many children struggle to understand. It is something that we measure but it is also something that we cannot touch or feel. Although some aspects of time may be mastered incidentally as children experience circumstances where elapsed time and time of day are used to compare or plan, this type understanding is generally incomplete. Children need explicit opportunities to work with clocks to discover how the system we use to tell and record time works.

MathTappers: Clockmaster offers both a practice mode to support exploration and tutoring activities and a game mode to help players to become fluent in both reading and setting time on digital and analog clocks.

Players may choose both the type of clocks that are presented and which clock will be set during the game (top or bottom).

For the top clock there are two modes:
The ‘Normal Analog’ version is a traditional clock face with minute and hour hands while the ‘Broken’ clock shows only the hour hand (with the minute hand broken off). When the minute hand is missing the child can focus on the relationship between the hour hand and the hours and minutes shown on the digital clock. This is a very useful tool for helping children understand the nature of the hour hand, the number of minutes in an hour and the secondary nature of the minute hand (indeed early clocks did not have a minute hand and sundials never will)

For the bottom clock there are also two modes: The ‘Digital’ version is a traditional digital clock – a representation found on most electronic devices and computers. It may be easier for children to ‘read’ but often this ability comes without understanding. The ‘Words’ version represents the words that might typically be spoken by someone who has mastered the Analog clock when describing the time. It is expected that this second mode will be most helpful after players have mastered the relationship between the Analog clock and the Digital clock. It may also be helpful for non-native English speakers to learn the clock words.


Design: Tim Pelton & Leslee Francis Pelton
Programming: Garrett Reimer & Mike Anderson

The designers of the MathTappers Apps are math educators and researchers seeking to create simple games that will help learners to make sense of mathematics one concept at a time. We have designed MathTappers apps to support students in learning mathematics by providing relevant visual models, focused content linked games and helpful suggestions for parents and educators.

The MathTappers motto is: Play, Explore, Understand!

Current MathTappers Apps include:
MathTappers: Clock Master – learn to tell time
MathTappers: Estimate Fractions – make sense of fraction sums and differences
MathTappers: Find Sums – learn basic facts for addition and subtraction
MathTappers: Multiples – learn basic facts for multiplication and division
MathTappers: Equivalents – master equivalent fractions, decimals and percents

Please visit MathTappers.com for more information about existing and upcoming apps.