Apps For Education - Prodigy

Let's be honest: 2020 hasn't been the greatest year. After being in a global pandemic for about nine months, the majority of schools in the country have adapted to some form of online learning. Whether it be fully-remote or a hybrid model, students everywhere of all ages have had to adjust to this new form of learning; a very difficult task that has a lot of students not doing too well in their classes this year.

In order to help their children succeed this year, parents everywhere have been looking for online resources to give their children a boost in learning time as well as in their motivation.

Prodigy, a game that has been around since 2015, has been one important resource for both parents and teachers everywhere. Prodigy is an online math game for students grades one through eight. In Prodigy, students get to practice magic as a wizard as they complete quests around Prodigy's fantasy world. The wizards wander around the map and complete quests for other characters they meet, battling visiting monsters with their magic and interacting with other wizards. 

This game sounds like any normal wizard game, but there's one catch: In order to battle the many monsters the wizard encounters, they have to first answer a math problem correctly.

When creating a Prodigy account, the user can choose what grade the student is in. Prodigy then uses the student's grade level and curriculums by state/country in order to give the student questions that line up with what they should be learning during that school year. For example, if a student is in eighth grade in Massachusetts, Prodigy will ask the student questions covering the general curriculum (Algebraic Thinking and Operations, Measurement and Data, Geometry, Number and Operations in Base Ten, etc.). Prodigy aims to help students broaden and improve their math knowledge and math skills through engaging and fun gameplay. The students gain experience and currency through battling the monsters around the world and can use that currency to modify their character and environment. This further encourages the student to keep playing the game, answering more and more questions as they go on.

If the student wants to dive even deeper into the world of Prodigy, Prodigy has a premium membership program that parents can pay monthly or yearly. For about $5-$10 a month,  parents are able to see what their child is up to in the classroom and can track their child's progress in both their classes (if the child is using prodigy through school) and in the game. For the student, a premium membership means more clothing/accessories to modify their character with, access to the entire world map, and more educational content. Ultimately, it is up to the parent and the child when deciding whether they feel a paid membership is what they need. Prodigy is free to play and just gives parents the option if they want to join the premium membership program, but it isn't absolutely necessary to buy in order to play and enjoy Prodigy.

Prodigy is widely used by parents, teachers, and students around the world and is well-known in the educational game community. Prodigy has received multiple awards and recognitions for being one of the top educational games, and Prodigy has also been shown to improve students' overall test scores (https://www.prodigygame.com/main-en/research). Prodigy is a way for students to enjoy learning and enjoy math. The game encourages them to continue challenging themselves and practicing various math skills.

Overall, Prodigy is a fun game that I even found myself enjoying while I was conducting my research. The countless quests and characters are fun and engaging, and the battling is enjoyable and challenging enough that you want to keep playing. Prodigy allows the student to learn without it feeling like school or feeling like a lesson. I found that through Prodigy, I was actually able to review some topics from eighth grade that I haven't really used in a while. Prodigy has been around for a little while and continues to update and improve as time goes on. Various events occur throughout the year and the quests seem almost endless. Especially now, educators everywhere value resources like Prodigy to help their students excel while participating in the difficult process of online learning. Prodigy definitely has been successful in their goals and has helped students everywhere improve their skills and learn how to enjoy learning.

Prodigy Website: https://www.prodigygame.com/main-en/

Informational Video: https://youtu.be/O1_V75nK67M

Gameplay Video: https://youtu.be/Dxw9Lxtnr-w

Various Reviews for Prodigy: https://www.commonsense.org/education/website/prodigy