Rather than rewarding the correct answer, Lathoa asks the children to find the wrong step of a math solution and explain why it doesn't hold.
Lathoa starts from a simple observation: at a time when children hear plausible answers from chatbots every day, the rare skill is to know when a response is wrong. The app, intended for 10-14 year olds, features Errol, a small robot companion of mathematics that solves problems aloud... and is systematically wrong at one stage. Example: Convert 90 minutes to "0.90 hours" to calculate the end time of a film.
The child reads the solution step by step as an investigation file, without chronometer, highlights the wrong step and then has to explain the error with his own words — it is this explanation, more than the simple click, that must anchor the understanding. The traps are classified into three levels (evident, sneaky, expert) and the successes advance in detective grades, without notes or default rankings.
In his presentation on Hacker News, the team explains that producing reliable false answers is surprisingly difficult, hence an arithmetic check of each case. The free offer entitles you to three puzzles a day; A flat-rate licence is provided for classes of 10 or more students.
Read the full article on the original source
Go to the source →