MOUNT OLIVE, NJ—Recently, the Mount Olive Chronicle reported that students at Mountain View School are finding inspiration in the First In Math Online program—an important component of math instruction and enrichment at the New Jersey school for several years.
The most recent statistics available indicate that Mountain View students have completed more than two million math problems and are ranked #2 in New Jersey.
Contemporary math warrior Robert Sun, who inspires students as the creator of the FIM program, is the descendant of another great thinker and strategist.
“First In Math makes students forget they are even learning because they get wrapped up into the games,” explains Gloria Silva, a basic math skills teacher at the school who did extensive research on learning through game play while completing her masters degree in education. “First In Math also lets kids move at their own pace which puts them in control of their own learning.”
The story explains that students play in class as directed by their teachers, but are logging the majority of their time on the site at home. The First In Math Online program has a unique “Family Link” feature that automatically generates a family User ID once a child solves a predetermined number of math problems. Family members are learning and refreshing their skills as they work alongside their child.
First In Math modules reinforce mastery of basic facts, decimals, fractions, integers, exponents, variables and order of operations. Many of the games introduce principles of algebra as early as kindergarten, first and second grade.
According to Dhruva Raghuraman, a student in Caralynn Ferrara’s fourth grade class, “The games are fun because they improve your skills and bring you up to what you can do. They learn what you can do and make things harder and more challenging as you go.”
The article also brought to light the fact that Robert Sun—creator of the First In Math program—is one of Sun Tzu’s descendants. Sun Tzu was a Chinese general, strategist and philosopher. He is the author of The Art of War, an extremely influential ancient book on military strategy.
Sun was excited to read about the Mount Olive success. He also enjoyed the additional historical information that lent an interesting slant to the article, but noticed a few amusing inaccuracies. “The article states that: ‘Sun is a 29th generation descendant of Sun Tzu,’ but assuming there are about 30 years in a generation, that puts us about 900 years apart. The problem is that Sun Tzu lived in the Spring and Autumn period of around 500 BC. If their statement is interpreted exactly as stated, I would have lived around 400 AD, right around the fall of the Roman Empire! My genealogical research indicates that Sun Tzu was in the 29th generation of our family tree, while I am in the 112th generation—which puts us 83 generations, or about 2,500 years, apart. I much prefer to be right here in present time!”
Through its interactive games tailored for each grade level, First In Math is developing students’ math fluency as it strengthens their problem-solving, critical thinking and communication skills. All valuable assets for the contemporary math warrior!