I recently wrote an article about the gamified STEM teaching and learning platform Brilliant. While Brilliant is indeed a top performer, it's not the only math "game" in town. I decided to round up a selection of similar online math platforms to help teachers find the perfect match for their students.
For this review, I focused on math or STEM platforms that provide a robust set of online practice tools and manipulatives. Platforms that relied primarily on printed materials were excluded, as I wanted to focus on the learning and engagement benefits of digital manipulatives.
These exceptional math learning tools are fully free or modestly priced, and aimed at engaging learners of all levels with their interactive tools, gamified features, graphics and sound effects. Simply put, they make learning and doing math fun. And because teachers have the ability to individually assign lessons, each platform serves as a personalized learning tool for every student.
Best Online Math Platforms for Education
BEST FOR K-8 MATH CURRICULA
ZEARN
Zearn, a nonprofit platform designed by teachers, provides more than 1,000 research-backed K-8 digital math lessons, and has earned the highest designation (Strong) rating from Evidence for ESSA. Individual teachers can sign up for a full suite of content at no charge, while schools and districts can pay for premium features. A teacher's account includes all Zearn math instructional materials, for up to 35 students and one teacher.
Unique among the platforms featured, Zearn provides brief video introductions that demonstrate how to solve problems in upcoming lessons. In addition to the interactive video lessons, it also provides fluency practice activities and mastery-based quizzes.
Zearn is also distinguished by its level of reporting. Using the four types of reports— Pace, Progress, Tower Alerts, and Sprint Alerts—teachers can easily monitor student progress and pace of lesson completion. Importantly, the two "Alerts" allow teachers to identify students who are struggling with content and fluency.
BEST FOR TARGETED SKILLS PRACTICE
Struggly
Struggly is a preK-8 gamified math supplement that emphasizes the value of persisting through mistakes. Instead of a sad buzzer sound with an error message, kids are congratulated for their mistakes. By acknowledging that mistakes are foundational to learning and brain growth, Struggly takes some of the pressure off both high-achieving and low-achieving students.
Consistent with Struggly's teaching philosophy, no instructions are provided for its engaging exercises. Instead, high-quality animations, pop-ups, and sound effects guide students on where to click on each page. Users can click on "hints" to get help if needed.
Struggly makes it easy for teachers to try its interactive tasks before assigning any. Currently, there are 68 separate tasks available, searchable by Common Core State Standards or topic. Although 68 is relatively few, each task includes a number of levels, so a single task can serve as deep practice across multiple grades. Struggly aims to release one to three new tasks per month.
Although Struggly is a modestly-priced paid platform, it offers a generous 60-day free trial—with no credit card required—to determine if it will be a fit for your classroom.
I Know It
I Know It shines as an easy-to-use K-5 interactive math practice site. Its clean, uncluttered interface offers intuitive navigation for teachers and students alike.
To find lessons, simply select Math from the top menu, then click on your desired grade from K-5, also on the top menu. Teachers can easily try each lesson simply by clicking on it, and also directly assign any lesson from within it. Creating classes and adding students is similarly frictionless.
While it's a fully interactive platform, I Know It's lessons aren't gamified at the same level as other platforms featured here. However, its amusing robot mascot does provide encouragement via sound effects and comic reactions to answers, right or wrong. Hints and encouragement are offered along the way as kids work through their problem sets.
Annual memberships, costing a modest $150, include up to 25 students, while the 30-day free trial (no credit cared required) will allow educators to fully experience the platform's tools and benefits.
BEST DYNAMIC TOOLS AND VIRTUAL MANIPULATIVES
GeoGebra
A fully free interactive math platform for grades 4-12, GeoGebra focuses on dynamic tools that help students visualize and understand concepts in algebra, geometry, numeracy, statistics, and more.
GeoGebra boasts an impressive library of more than one million math learning resources, including lessons, exercises, digital books, and interactives, contributed by the GeoGebra Content Team, as well as GeoGebra’s global community. Users can create and upload their own resources incorporating applets, text, video, images, PDFs, notes, questions, and more.
GeoGebra's intuitive website is easy to navigate and use. It's ideal for exploration, demonstration and formative assessments. Given the platform's extensive scope, educators should familiarize themselves with the interactives and curate relevant resources prior to classroom implementation. Fortunately, GeoGebra offers strong guidance via its Help pages and YouTube channel.
Although an account is not required for either students or teachers, teachers will need to create one in order to fully utilize this versatile and engaging platform.
Polypad
The fully free award-winning Polypad is a digital math playground that uses multimedia interactive tools, sound, and music to teach geometry, algebra, probability, and statistics to middle and high school students. Requiring no login or installation, Polypad runs on all devices and browsers, and provides an extensive set of pre-designed puzzles, activities, and lesson plans.
Available in English and Spanish, Polypad allows users to add co-teachers to their classes and offers detailed student progress reports. The recently added Snapshot Tool makes it easy for educators to select and sequence student work for class discussion.
Polypad also distinguishes itself with logic-based games, such as chess and dominoes, as well as interactive music tools that let users explore and compose music digitally. Open to teachers and students, the Polypad Art and Music Contest is an excellent opportunity to showcase creativity and skill in using the Polypad tools. These unique features of Polypad qualify it as not only a top-notch STEM tool, but also a first-rate STEAM tool.
BEST FOR ENRICHMENT
Brilliant
Brilliant features super snappy graphics and sound effects that mimic those of your students' favorite video games.
But Brilliant is much more than amusing characters, badges, points, and sound effects. In fact, it offers a huge variety of grade 3-12 STEM lessons in math, computer science, science, and data. Each lesson contains multiple levels, progressing from simpler to more complex, allowing students to build mastery and confidence as they work.
Ideal for highly motivated and advanced students, Brilliant allows users to jump ahead in lessons, preventing boredom for quick learners and encouraging them to explore STEM topics on their own.
Premium Brilliant is 100% free for qualified educators and their students.
