Students Darragh Cole and Alisha Cooke pictured with the Minister for Education Ruairi Quinn, TD, along with some cupcake representations of the game graphics of PixelSoup's new Symmetry School app
A new app called Symmetry School launched by the Dublin digital media company PixelSoup to help primary-school children develop their maths skills is proving to be a hit in countries such as South Korea, New Zealand and Australia since it went live on the App Store two weeks ago.
The Symmetry School app, which PixelSoup CEO Philip Lynch describes as a “visual-spatial, brain-twisting mathematical puzzle” went live on the App Store on 21 May, and is available in six languages.
“Already, it has reached No 1 in the iPad Education App Store,” explained Lynch. “South Korea is giving it a five-star rating, and we’re also seeing healthy sales in the US, the UK, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Australia and New Zealand.”
PixelSoup, which is based at the Digital Hub on Thomas Street in Dublin, has been developing a series of educational interactive games called ‘Spraoi School over the past two years.
Lynch said that while the Irish primary school curriculum inspired the game series, the company has developed the app series with an international audience in mind.
“When we began researching possibilities two years ago, we honed in on the ‘space and shape’ mathematical concepts that are taught to primary school children in Ireland. We realised the exact same concepts are taught to children right across the globe,” he said.
To test the Symmetry School app, PixelSoup released a whiteboard version to schools in Ireland last November.
“Over 600 schools and teachers signed up and are now using it in the classroom,” explained Lynch.
Based on feedback from schools, PixelSoup has since refined the app to launch an iPad version with gameplay features such as an iOS physics engine.
The app also has a function to enable teachers and parents receive the results of children’s puzzle-solving activities.
The Symmetry School app is currently available in iOS format, with PixelSoup planning to launch an Android version over the coming months. The app costs €2.69, and is available in English, Irish, French, German, Spanish and Chinese.
