The world’s “first critical thinking gasified math universe” Zap Zap Math is being updated to better help teachers and students this school year.

A featured “Best New App” in the Apple Store,” Zap Zap Math has been downloaded over 1 million times, even before adding over 160 new math topics to align with students’ math curriculum this school year.

In addition to new topics, the platform also includes "a new and improved user interface for easier navigation with grade selector and slider, curriculum matching for all games, and simplified topic explanation for students' easy comprehension. It also includes clear mapping of topics to state standards,” said Zap Zap Math in a statement.

Co-founder of the platform John Ng began developing Zap Zap Math to fill a need he saw as a teacher in Singapore, a country praised for its ability to teach students solid math skills.

""As a former math teacher in Singapore, I could see how students struggled with worksheets that were basically one dimensional. Irrespective of the difficulties they were facing, students were forced to complete them anyway,” he said in the statement.

And so he developed Zap Zap Math, a self-paced program that he says encourages students to pursue learning without being coerced.

"Beyond learning and memorizing topics, Zap Zap Math further develops higher-order thinking as it inculcates critical thinking and problem solving skills, which is often difficult to teach and learn in a usual classroom setting,” Ng said.

As Zap Zap Math continues to grow and become teacher-favorite, Ng said he is open to pursuing additional modern updates in the classroom- such as "making Zap Zap Math a more immersive virtual learning experience for students far and wide.”

Read more about Zap Zap Math.

Nicole Gorman, Education World Contributor

8/30/2016