Math Blaster Ages 4-6 Download !FREE!
Lorie Silano
Math Blaster ages 6-8 (also known as Math Blaster 2nd Grade and Math Blaster ages 7-8) is part of the series of Math Blaster videogames. It was released by Knowledge Adventure on August 9, 1999. It features the two reoccurring characters Max Blaster and GC, and their robotic dog MEL.
The Blaster Learning System is an educational video game series originally created and published by Davidson & Associates, but is now owned and published by JumpStart (Knowledge Adventure), after the two companies were acquired and merged by CUC Software. Titles in the series have been produced for several computer systems, video game consoles, and as standalone handheld units. Originally, the series simply learned mathematics, but eventually expanded to other subjects, such as language arts (reading) and science. Because the first Math Blaster series was so popular, Davidson made Reading Blaster in 1994, which also went on to be a hit.
Kids can learn varying types and levels of arithmetic -- addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions, algebra, and more -- all of which is integrated directly into the adventures. There's also a safe social aspect that allows players to team up with one another and work together. Kids need to set their goals and work hard to achieve them. Missions can be played at multiple skill levels, so kids can adjust the game's difficulty to fit their abilities -- and challenge themselves when they want to achieve higher goals. In Math Blaster Online, kids work with others to save the universe by using math on leveled missions.
With the possible exception of the opening scene, in which your trainer/guide seems somewhat apologetic about the fact that you're going to do some math, the Blaster Academy folks are all top-notch role models. They're supportive, but push you to try harder. They're generally friendly and cooperative. And they're all really smart.
Through most of Math Blaster Online, you can control movement with either a mouse or the arrow keys. But occasionally, you reach a game in which you must use the arrow keys, and that can make aiming at moving targets quite a challenge. For the most part, though, the controls work well enough. And you can adjust the difficulty of the math problems throughout, as well as the difficulty of the gaming.
Parents need to know that Math Blaster Online is an online role-playing game that is centered around educational play. As a player, your child will join the Blaster Academy and go through various training missions so they can learn how to protect the universe from bad guys. These training missions, while based in sci-fi themes, are all math games that involve performing equations to win. There is quite a bit of laser-shooting involved, but no blasting of living beings occurs. Also, while this is a social game, and children can befriend and chat with other players, they can only speak through the use of pre-selected phrases. Nor can they give out personal information.
MATH BLASTER ONLINE is a massively multi-player browser-based role-playing game in which you play the part of a new recruit to the Blaster Academy, a school that turns out future saviors of the universe. Players' avatars can be incredibly non-human-looking aliens if they want them to be. Cadets at the academy will train in all sorts of sci-fi action games, involving everything from shooting galleries and starship missions to platform jumping and wild monster riding. But each of these activities will involve solving math problems as a major part of it. Cadets can also chat with other players, team up with them for multiplayer games, and add them to friend lists.
The scope of Math Blaster Online is quite impressive -- the academy is full of elevators and doors that lead to all sorts of different game areas. So is the way the developers have managed to keep the mini-game missions action-packed while being unabashedly math-focused. Being able to constantly tweak the difficulty level and the type of math problems you'll face is a nice way to make sure kids don't quickly outgrow the game. The social aspect is fun -- allowing kids to form teams and even make plans to meet for a multiplayer game -- while remaining safe through the use of pre-selected phrases (as well as loads of fun gestures and emoticons). And the earning of new academy ranks provides incentive for kids to keep playing -- and keep learning in the process. It provides a very nice transition from solo educational game to online social game.
Parents can also talk to their kids about the importance of math. Why should they play a game like this, which will build their math skills, instead of a straight sci-fi adventure that is pure entertainment? In what ways will the lessons they learn here help in their real lives?
Owned by Knowledge Adventure and published under their educational media franchise, JumpStart, the Math Blaster series began in 1983 with the educational computer game Math Blaster! In the earliest games, players follow protagonist Blasternautlater renamed Blasterhis sidekick Spot, and their robot companion Galactic Commander in order to play interactive, space-themed math games and puzzles. The series originally focused solely on mathematics, but it later expanded to include other subjects such as language arts and science. Knowledge Adventure published spin-offs for these subjects, beginning with Reading Blaster in 1994. As the games evolved over time and graphics improved, the main characters changed appearances several times and Blaster's universe changed as well. Beginning in October 2005, Knowledge Adventure began a new plotline set in the year 8296, in which Earth is controlled by computers and humans have completely forgotten how to do simple math because of their reliance on technology. The players follow Blaster on a quest to restore the humans' knowledge and put a stop to a controlling computer named Cyclotron X. In a few of the Blaster games, the main character is a green creature named Rave who must stop a mad scientist known as Dr. Dabble. These particular characters were introduced in Math Blaster Mystery: The Great Brain Robbery. Players can find the Blaster games online, on handhelds such as the Nintendo DS, on consoles such as the Nintendo Wii, and as applications on mobile devices. Targeted to children from ages three through 12, these games combine specific lessons with arcade-style gameplay designed to reinforce topics. Many parents and teachers use these games as educational supplements, and in 2006, the game Math Blaster: Mastering the Basics won a National Parenting Center Seal of Approval.
True to being both educating and entertaining, the Blaster series centered on an astronaut called Blasternaut (get it?) and his Robot Buddy Spot, a little blue droid. They worked for the Galactic Commander, who herself helped to run a federation-like organization that spanned the galaxy to apprehend criminals. Eventually Galactic Commander (or GC, as the others called her) joined the team. Their images changed rapidly - for example, Spot eventually became a robotic dog named MEL while G.C. became a 12 year old girl instead of a tall, green woman and Blaster became a 12 year old human boy instead of a green, astronaut-like man. This last version of the characters was featured in the Saturday-Morning Cartoon series Blaster's Universe, produced by Nelvana in 1999.
Please do not confuse with Learning Voyage, which is another Edutainment Game series Davidson worked on that features aliens and takes place aboard a space ship; the similarities end there.Games with their own pages:
Like video games, educational software combines sound, color and flashy animation to capture the often short attention spans of children. But unlike violence-prone games, the payoff of kidware comes in the form of knowledge and invention rather than the emotional rush of destroying a foe. The programs are tailored for young minds at several stages from preschool to teen. Easy whimsy is the spirit of software like Broderbund's Kid Pix for young children, a paint program with a collection of leaky pens, dripping brushes and splattering paints you never have to clean up. Children ages 10 and older can create their own newspaper with programs such as Student Writing Center from the Learning Company, a do-it-yourself word processor that gives kids a 660,000-word thesaurus, 120 pictures and numerous type fonts. All told, the kidware industry now offers nearly 1,000 programs. Among the most popular:
SIX-TO-10-YEAR-OLDS: Kidware for this group must be demanding enough to keep children interested but not so tough as to cause them to switch off their machines. Davidson & Associates' Math Blaster, a venerable series that has sold 1.6 million copies since 1983, freely borrows video-game techniques. The latest title, In Search of Spot, sends kids on a quest to rescue the Blasternaut's caterpillar-like space pal. The correct answer to a math problem puts the user closer to freeing Spot from the Trash Alien's ship. The Even More Incredible Machine, from Sierra On-Line, confronts users with more than 150 challenges to their ingenuity, ranging from launching a toy rocket to shooting a basketball through a hoop. To send up a rocket, a child must find a way to light the fuse. One possibility: using a magnifying glass to focus light rays. Budding authors can use Storybook Weaver, from Minnesota Educational Computing Corp., to create adventure tales. After clicking their cursor on a haunted house or other exotic setting, children fill it with colorful characters and write a story based on the scene.
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