Eight new online games will boost learning, engagement and sustained motivation amongst children

Development follows success of pioneering world’s first games-based abacus application

Eight new online games to help children learn maths and English have been launched by Glasgow-based British Youth International College (BYITC).

The College specialises in teaching maths using a counting tool that has been used for millennia – the abacus – and has launched the games under its flagship Supermaths brand.

Supermaths is BYITC’s most popular teaching programme and offers a mix of weekly teacher-led abacus maths classes and online tutorials.

“Making learning fun helps to engage children and helps them learn,” said Dr Rashmi Mantri, who founded BYITC in 2015 after using an abacus to teach her son basic arithmetic.

“We want to make learning accessible for all so that is why we have the option of a free trial so parents and children can give it a shot and see how much fun it is. We pioneered our web-based games learning approach to help young people learn maths. Now we’re bringing the same success formula to learning English.”

The new games include Penguin Party Maths – a fun game for building maths skill; Number Nitro – to help children learn addition and subtraction through play – and Fish Frenzy Maths – a fun and effective way to practice arithmetic times tables.

The graphics and avatars in the games are inspired by computer games and include turtles, fish, footballers, penguins and cars. The new game releases build on BYITC’s experience of delivering online abacus maths programmes called Abacus Supermaths and developing the World’s first games-based abacus maths application.

“The abacus is an ancient but brilliant tool that teaches students to do big calculations mentally without the use of any calculator or paper,” said Dr Mantri explained. “When my son Dhruv learned maths using an abacus, he could do mathematical calculations even faster than a calculator.”

BYITC now runs 10 franchises globally – including Dubai and Sri Lanka – and teaches online courses in English, programming and cyber security as well as maths for young people aged 5 to 17. The new releases mean BYITC has now developed more than 20 of its own games in-house.

“Students can now create their own Supermaths accounts, which has enabled us to introduce an online leader board element with the latest batch of games,” Dr Mantri said. “This has been technically challenging, but is an added feature that increases competition and engagement with our learning games.”

Thought to have been first used by the Babylonians, an ancient Middle Eastern civilization, as early as 2,400 BC, the abacus is known to be highly effective at training the brain to make mathematical calculations involving huge numbers.

Dr Mantri is a computer scientist, academic and software trainer by background. Anyone interested in a free trial can sign up here.