Symmetry Shuffle
© 2010 Carstens Studios
Anyone who has ever moved a piano up a flight of stairs knows the value of spatial intelligence -- the ability to manipulate weightless shapes in your head before translating the results to the real world. It is a learned skill; one in which practice makes perfect. Symmetry Shuffle, created by Daren Carstens, the math educator who also created Math Arena and Sums Stacker, contains 12 sets of objects that can be randomly shuffled on a board. The goal is to slide, flip and turn each object, until all the shapes are correctly aligned and filled in. You can flip a shape by tapping on the edge, or turn it by flicking the corner, a process that takes some learning. The hand drawn art is innovative and playful -- there are cows and sneakers -- and the puzzles animate themselves when they are complete. But the mission of beating your own time is the thing that keeps you playing. Your time and score are tracked and it is fun to see how quickly you improve. There are two modes of play-- race or solve, and it is possible to save your high scores on a leaderboard. This is an ideal elementary geometry enrichment activity that is fun enough to keep either kids or adults playing.
$1.99, iPad Universal, iPad, iPhone
Teaches: math, geometry, spatial relations
CTR Rating: 94%