Number Line Touch: Multiplication

“Number Line Touch: Multiplication” is an education puzzle-based game for developing students’
multiplicative reasoning in the elementary classroom or at home. The app is designed primarily for
students in grades 2-5 to develop a robust understanding of multiplication and division that facilitates a
meaningful understanding of basic facts and procedures. The app includes all of Level 1; additional levels
will be forthcoming. To access the user guide (complete with activities and standards/level alignment),
please visit: http://spedapps.kent.edu/ourapps.php
The app is a puzzle game merged with a number line. Students must place rods with different values
onto a number line to find missing numbers. Students must demonstrate mastery by earning three stars
on the level before they can move onto the next, more advanced level. Additionally, the app generates a
new puzzle for each level when a student opens that level. Therefore, students can practice their math
and have fun with endless variations of puzzles at their level.
Throughout Level 1, students begin learning to use the number line to count onto and down-from given
numbers. Each sub-level in Level 1 is designed to scaffold learning how to skip-count numbers (an
important skill for developing multiplicative reasoning). Level 2 has a similar scaffolded design, but
focuses on improving students’ skip-counting skills. Levels 3 and 4 introduce and focus on formal
multiplication and division on the number line. Level 5 focuses on developing meaningful understanding
of algorithms for multiplying and dividing multi-digit numbers.
The app was developed by Dr. Karl Kosko (kkosko1@kent.edu), Dr. Rick Ferdig (rferdig@gmail.com), Dr.
C.C. Lu, Venkata Gorthi, Xiqian Han, Rachel Kozy, and other Kent State researchers and educators that
were a part of SPEDAPPS project (http://spedapps.kent.edu; spedapptest@gmail.com). Please visit the
website for additional information and resources. Music for the overview video was used from:
www.royaltyfreemusicforfree.com.