Just give me the 30-second intro
Funded by USDA, Growing Math provides ready-to-roll-out lessons and games combining math, agricultural science and Indigenous history and culture that can be easily used in classrooms, via hybrid models or through distance learning. The project directly addresses the problems identified by schools, including increasing attendance and improving student math scores while engaging students. The original project provided resources, curriculum, training and tech support to teachers and students in Grades 3-8 at schools in six states. When USDA grant funding ended, the project was taken up by the Strong Mind Strong Body Foundation, to continue providing free, culturally-integrated educational resources to teachers throughout the country.
All games, lesson plans, videos, data and reporting, training and tech support provided on this site is free, thanks to foundation support.
Because the grant ended, we no longer can pay a stipend for teachers who complete the training. Training is still available, free, online and can be done on your own time. During the training, you will see all the games available, be walked through reports, lesson plans and our video library. You’ll also be given a password to access the protected site.
The project is led by Juliana Taken Alive (Hunkpapa/Mnicoujou Lakota, Standing Rock Nation) and Dr. AnnMaria De Mars. Christy Hanson (Diné) is the community manager. Maria Burns Ortiz is the project’s creative director.
How do I get access to all of the resources?
Some resources, like lesson plans and videos, anyone can access from the website. To have full access, you can either attend the online training or just send an email to growingmath@7generationgames.com . We won’t judge you for not attending the training (honest).
How (and why) do I attend the training?
We want your students to be successful and you not to be frustrated. Have you ever planned a lesson only to find out five minutes before class that the technology you need, student logins, passwords or other information is not available? We know how frustrating that is.
At the end of the training you will know what games can be played by your students on whatever devices they have, at school or at home. You’ll know how to get their usernames and passwords. You’ll have walked through adding a lesson plan to your Google classroom, including links to any games or presentations you want to use. You’ll have played through some of the games so you can see the educational content your students will have. You will take a look at the video play lists so you know where you can find additional videos on topics like multiplication, finding the mean or computing a perimeter.
You’ll see where to find the reports for each game and the standards assessed by each question.
After the training, you will have all the links you need for your students and your teacher login for the reports. You’ll be ready to set up their usernames and passwords or we can do it for you. Once you start using the Growing Math lesson plans, you should not run into any ‘glitches’.
Finding lesson plans
Click on the link right here or in the top menu on any page to see the latest lesson plans in order. In the search bar in the left corner, type whatever you’re searching for, e.g., multiplication, to find all lesson plans for that topic.
How do I access the games ?
Here are the games by device :
We still recommend you watch the teacher training videos for tips to use in your classroom.
WHAT GAMES ARE AVAILABLE FOR MY GRADE LEVEL?
More detailed information is available under the games link for each device (see above). However, if you haven’t completed the training yet and don’t have access to those links, or just want a quick summary, see below.
Grades 3 to 5
Fish Lake – Grades 4-6, Fractions, Ojibwe History. Plays on Windows, Mac, and iPad
Making Camp Bilingual – Multiplication and Division, Ojibwe History, in English and Spanish. Plays on Windows, Mac, Chromebook, iPhone, iPad, and Android
Making Camp Lakota – Grades 4-5, Division, Lakota History, in English and Lakota. Plays on Windows, Mac, Chromebook, iPhone, iPad, and Android
Making Camp Premium – Multiplication and Division, Ojibwe History, English Language Arts. Plays on Windows, Mac, Chromebook, iPhone, iPad, and Android
Making Camp Dakota – Long division, division word problems, Dakota history and culture. Plays on Windows, Mac, Chromebook.
Math: The Universal Language AR – Dakota – Division, in English and Dakota. Plays on iPhone, iPad, and Android
Math: The Universal Language AR – Lakota – Multiplication, in English and Lakota. Plays on iPhone, iPad, and Android
Spirit Lake – Multiplication, Division, Dakota History. Plays on Windows and Mac
Spirit Lake Beginnings – Lakota – Multiplication, Division, Lakota History. Plays on Windows and Mac
Grades 6 to 8
AzTech: The Story Begins – Fractions and Statistics, Latin American History. Plays on Windows, Mac, Chromebook, iPhone, and iPad
AzTech: Meet the Maya – Statistics, Latin American History. Plays on Windows, Mac, Chromebook, and iPad
Forgotten Trail – Fractions, Decimals, Measurement, and Statistics, Ojibwe history. Plays on Windows, Mac, and Chromebook
AzTech: Empiric Empire – Fractions, Statistics, Latino History. Plays on iPad, iPhone and Android phones.
Making Camp Navajo – Ratio and proportion, Navajo history and culture. Plays on Windows, Mac and Chromebook.
Student usernames and passwords
Why assign usernames and passwords?
Even though some games will allow your students to play offline, we recommend for games that have a login feature that students use it.
- The usernames and passwords tracks players’ progress in the game and also, for most games, records the quizzes and responses to answers.
- Teachers can look up individual student progress by username.
How do students get usernames and passwords?
- Teachers usually assign usernames/passwords to students. If your students use a special username for other programs used at your school, they can use that as long as the username is not already in use with 7 Generation Games.
- If you prefer, we can make a list of usernames and passwords for you. Contact us at growingmath@7generationgames.com. Tell us the name of your school or district and how many students need usernames. We’ll send you a spreadsheet with usernames/passwords.
- Although students could create their own username and password, we don’t recommend it because when they forget, neither you nor we will have anyway of retrieving it for them.
Getting data reports
You can find information on the data available in student reports here. This is also covered in detail in the training. You’ll need a password to access the links to the actual reports. If you know all that and just need the link to the reports because you forgot it, here it is.
Where Can I Download the Augmented Reality cards?
Links for each app are below. You can also get the links from the individual apps.
Math: The Universal Language Dakota cards (multiplication in Dakota and English)
Math: The Universal Language Lakota cards (multiplication in Lakota and English)
- Download and install the Augmented Reality app from Google Play or the App store.
- When you open the app using your device, on the third screen you’ll see a space where you can input your email.
- Type in your email and click the arrow next to the box. You’ll get a link to the cards in your email.
- You can download these and print them. (You can also use a second device, like a phone or tablet if you don’t have a printer.)
Note: We recommend you laminate printed cards, with particularly Math: The Universal Language apps if you intend to use these for teaching numbers in multiple languages to preschool or kindergarten children.
How do the Augmented Reality Apps Work?
In our augmented reality (AR) games, children see numbers come to life! They can hear numbers pronounced and see the written word in multiple languages. They can also solve multiplication problems in English, Lakota or Dakota. Two examples are shown below. You’ll find links for all the augmented reality apps in the games links you’ll be given in the training.
In order to play this game, you just need to download the app (find the links in the following paragraph). Once inside the app, register your email and you’ll get the printable AR cards.
Then just point the camera (from the app) at the AR cards and see how the numbers appear.
Download the AR apps here: