Math is by far my favorite subject to teach in school and I love finding ways to help my students build their “number sense”. Some may also refer to this as “mental math” or, in non-eduspeak, the ability to quickly and efficiently calculate numbers without the assistance of a calculator. Also, someone with a strong “number sense” can recognize some numerical patterns quite easily. For example, if I were to ask you 12 + 8 you probably would not need to use your fingers and toes to mechanically count up from 12. Most likely you would isolate the 2 and the 8, then add that sum to the remaining 10. This skill you acquire and learn over time. Some struggle their entire life to naturally develop their “number sense”…

All of this leads to a game that I purchased and played tonight called “B1nary Game“. I found myself using my “number sense” throughout and it was a lot of fun! I only wish I had something like this as a web based application that I could share with my students (hint: wink wink to the developer).

The purpose of the game is to utilize specific binary switches (round buttons beneath the numbers 128, 64, 32, 16, 8, 4, 2, 1) to quickly combine the correct switches to add up to the displayed number. For example, if the displayed number is 84 you would need to press the 64, 16, and 4 switch. The way I began to play was by selecting the largest possible number, without going over, and different switch combinations until I reached 84. Random guesses in this game would be inefficient and over time the player discovers ways to improve and speed up their times.

The image below shows the welcome screen, along with large and easy to read buttons. I like how the layout is clear and concise.

The first place that I chose to visit was the “Quick Instructions” menu item. Below is an image of what the instruction section looks like. I found the images, as well as the text, to be quite helpful.

Before I dove into the “Challenge” and “Timed” rounds I decided to try out “Practice Mode” first. I find that I am more likely to be successful in iPhone games (games in general) when there is some sort of “sandbox” to mess around in first. While in “Practice Mode” I was able to transcend from random attempts to strategizing with different combinations. I started to recognize and utilize number patterns. In the picture below you can see that I had the “Goal” of 152. By selecting the 128 and 32 I had gone too far. If one of my students were playing this game I would hope that they would de-select the 32, move to the 16 (netting them 144) and then utilize their “number sense” to recognize that 152 is less than 10 away. From there the correct switch to choose would be the 8.

Sometimes the goal is less than 100 and the difference between what the player has and what the goal is becomes quite apparent. Needless to say, I liked ending up in situations like this.

So overall my initial impressions of this game are very positive. I highly recommend this game. I commend the developer on a job well done and I hope that I can improve my score and climb up the leaderboard. In the short time that the game has been out there have been some very high scores. I am interested to learn about some of their strategies!

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