Gorgeous. Mind bending. Fun.
Take this one on your next road trip or land flight. Stretch your brain. Fun for both kids and adults.
Educational Value and Excellent Practice for Improving Critical Thinking
Fun Way to Build Spatial Understanding of Flip, Turns, and Slides
Young children are being exposed to elementary geometric concepts at a younger age than ever before. Some attribute this to the new push due to "Common Core Standards", while others state the increased pressure for students to build their fundamental math concepts is a result of the United States less than stellar performance in the latest round of PISA testing. Whatever the actual reason is, there is no disputing the reality, or the need for our nation's students to both competent and competitive members of the global knowledge economy.
Symmetry Shuffle by Carstens Studios does an amazing job of introducing and fine-tuning both a child's skill and their understanding of spatial geometric concepts such as flip, turns, and slides. A student can choose between two different play modes "race" or "solve"; along with an option for "easy" or "hard "modes. There are also options for grid size and icons (used in the transformations). The only downside of the game I encountered -other than a difficulty in solving some of the actual puzzles- was in using the "arrow controls" whist on my iPad mini. However, once I moved onto a full-size iPad this issue was reduce to only a minor nuisance. I found the game play to be additive and I could feel the brain buzz as I was challenged with increasingly more difficult puzzles.
---------------------
As for the relevance to current educational goals and alignment with the current relating research, close my review with this excerpt:
Geometric and spatial thinking are important in and of themselves, because they connect mathematics with the physical world (Excerpt from "Progressions for the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics, June 23, 2012)
Young children are being exposed to elementary geometric concepts at a younger age than ever before. Some attribute this to the new push due to "Common Core Standards", while others state the increased pressure for students to build their fundamental math concepts is a result of the United States less than stellar performance in the latest round of PISA testing. Whatever the actual reason is, there is no disputing the reality, or the need for our nation's students to both competent and competitive members of the global knowledge economy.
Symmetry Shuffle by Carstens Studios does an amazing job of introducing and fine-tuning both a child's skill and their understanding of spatial geometric concepts such as flip, turns, and slides. A student can choose between two different play modes "race" or "solve"; along with an option for "easy" or "hard "modes. There are also options for grid size and icons (used in the transformations). The only downside of the game I encountered -other than a difficulty in solving some of the actual puzzles- was in using the "arrow controls" whist on my iPad mini. However, once I moved onto a full-size iPad this issue was reduce to only a minor nuisance. I found the game play to be additive and I could feel the brain buzz as I was challenged with increasingly more difficult puzzles.
---------------------
As for the relevance to current educational goals and alignment with the current relating research, close my review with this excerpt:
Geometric and spatial thinking are important in and of themselves, because they connect mathematics with the physical world (Excerpt from "Progressions for the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics, June 23, 2012)
Show more
doesn’t have the educational aspect
While this app is neat in theory, from an educational perspective, it doesn’t provide much. The controls are a little hard to use and I didn’t like the timing aspect. (It can make a student feel like they didn’t succeed when actually finishing a game is success in itself). Additionally, there wasn’t really an education aspect. I would have liked it more if it discussed the types of translations a little more (they’re only on the side in very small type). They could even show the breakdown of the different types when they show the total moves (i.e. 21 moves, 7 were reflection symmetry, 5 were translation symmetry…). Overall, it’s a neat idea, but the educational aspect just isn’t there and it can be difficult to use.
Show more
great concept but…
The concept is there but the functionality is not. The controls are difficult to use. Each move you make you must hold down on a very small button and rotate. It would be better if instead of having to hold down and rotating it the player could just click the button and it would be sufficient. Also, if the buttons were larger.
Show more
Great fun & valuably educationally
I was looking for a game to help with my son's perception of reflective/ rational symmetry. This is really great & also kept me entertained!
Love this game!
My five year old and I absolutely love this game. The artwork is beautiful -- my daughter's favorites are the butterfly wings and flowers while I love the umbrellas and cows. The pop of color as we match a tile is a pleasure for the eyes. On a future update, please consider showing in the solve mode the minimum number of moves possible to solve each puzzle with an option to replay that puzzle (as some of the Thinkfun apps do).
Show more
What a great game!
My 8 year old son adores this game. It took him a while to figure out how to work the different shape flips, but once he gained confidence you couldn't stop him!
As a Maths tutor myself I can see the educational value of this colourful, fun game, especially for people like me who are better with numbers than shapes.
As a Maths tutor myself I can see the educational value of this colourful, fun game, especially for people like me who are better with numbers than shapes.
Show more
Excellent teaching tool
I purchased this app to teach students about flips, slides, and turns in a much more engaging way. The fact that we all enjoy it at home is an added bonus. Can't wait to see what other apps you develop. Thanks!
Absolute delight!
It is a lovely app, with beautiful drawings. It is enjoyable to play, and a real joy to see my 4 year old playing it.
Fun and educative
Great illustrations. Helps learning to play with symmetry. Lots of fun for kids and adults alike!
Love this game!
Frustratingly interesting.....
Addictive
Got it for my son but can't put it down. I'm addicted to the timed games. Well recommended.
Best Game Ever
I love this game and my students love this game!! I also have his other game SumsStacker and the kids love it too. I'm looking forward to other games!!
Great game with gorgeous graphics!
Me and my 7 year old daughter love it. Well designed and beautiful, this game is fun and challenging at the same time.
Too hard for younger kids
Great app for kids over 8, mine is 5 and way too hard for her...
We love this app!
In addition to just being beautiful and well-designed, it is fun to play over and over. My wife and I are playing it competitively (against each other), and as we gradually get better, we've realized that we are really acquiring intuitive stuff about symmetry. This is really a gem. Thanks, Daren! Hope you port more of your doodle games to iPad.
Show more
Great little App, a must have for puzzlers, noodlers and doodlers
As a graphic artist and game designer something new and refreshing is hard to come by, and yet here this game is. What is even rarer is a game I cant find a single flaw with and wish I had come up with myself. Try it you will not regret it. Now since I set the iPad down to write this my 5 year old has scooped in and is playing Symmetry Shuffle, I'm not sure I get back to it anytime soon, she likes it more than I do.
Show more
Love it
Love this app it keeps me and my students thinking - disappointed that I didn't wait for the free offer.
Fun with visual math
I love this app. Beautiful art, fun to play, great design execution of the concept. Bravo!
My son loves it!
I bought this on the recommendation of an article I read on the best apps for kids. I had my doubts that it would interest my boys but they LOVE IT! It is such a challenge, they get addicted....they get competitive with it, like its the game or them! They can complete puzzles in minutes that takes me a half hour! very challenging, involves critical thinking, GREAT!
Show more
