School of Education is awarded $1.25 million to introduce novel math game in K-12 district

The UCI School of Education has received a three-year, $1.25 million research award from the NewSchools Venture Fund’s EF+Math Program to introduce Fraction Ball in the Santa Ana Unified School District. With the innovative mathematics game, arcs and colors are added to the design of a basketball court, helping children visualize equivalencies between fractions and decimals. The traditional 3-point arc is converted to 1 point. Closer to the basket, smaller arcs, showing fractions on one side and decimals on the other, represent shots worth  less than 1 point: 1/4 or .25, 1/2  or .50 and 3/4 or .75 at one end of the court and 1/3 or .333 and 2/3 or .666 at the opposite end. Two courtside number lines depicting equivalencies between fractions and decimals are employed to help keep score. “Fractions are a notoriously difficult content area for young students and a barrier to engaging in more complex math like algebra,” said Andres Bustamante, an assistant professor of education at UCI and leader of the research team. “Fraction Ball is a more accessible way to learn and is based in the latest research.”