This is the new blog style for IPMG!  Thanks for stopping by.   We’re getting everything formatted and soon this will be a place for you to come for lots of great math content and links to great math education, math games and math activities ideas.

Please give us a week or two to get everything squared away.

Thanks,

Joel.

What a great night!  The first Family Math Night at Bluff Creek Elementary School in Chanhassen, MN was a great success.  Principal Joan MacDonald and her staff did a wonderful job of arranging a Family Math Night that gave kids and parents a unique opportunity to explore a new relationship with math.

The Bluff Creek Family Math Night was anchored by a custom math game and activitiy workbook sponsored by Community Bank of Chanhassen and developed and published by IPMG Publishing, an Eden Prairie, MN developer of math games and activities.  Each student went home with a book, a deck of cards and a pair of dice to play the games at another time.

In addition, the evening featured students from the Middle School mentoring younger kids, a station that related math in music and a hands-on area to explore the math … Read More »

Math is all in the mind…..

We’ve all heard the sayings, "we become what we think about," "as you believe so shall it be done" and "if you think you are beaten you are…"  All are true. 

Here’s an interesting article about how important it is to control one’s attitude about math.  Yes, even the parent.  In fact, perhaps most importantly, the parent.  In the article, there is a reference to a new book that also addresses the thinking that the way math is taught may have an impact on attitude.  Seems entirely reasonable!

As IPMG is evolving and struggling to find it’s place in the market, our mission is becoming clear.  We can help with this attitude gap!  What we do is provide myriad tools for teachers and parents to say to a child, "hey, try this.  You may just like … Read More »

Are Games as a Learning Tool Research Based?  A common question…

This is a response from one of IPMG’s founders to a question received on www.iplaymathgames.com about whether or not the math games and activities sold by iplaymathgames.com have been researched:

 Tara,

 Thank you for contacting IPMG regarding research results on our publications, specifically, "Math Games Played with Cards and Dice." There has been no formal research conducted on the particular content of this book by IPMG;  however, there has been much research conducted on the genres of supplementary materials in mathematics education, use of manipulative devices in the mathematics classroom, differentiated instruction, motivation,  and use of multiple embodiments in mathematics instruction.

All of IPMG’s publications were developed, revised and rewritten by a practicing teacher in the St. Paul, MN public schools, Charles Lund, who meticulously observed student behaviors and … Read More »

I was asked this question the other day by an advisor to IPMG who is a fourth grade teacher.  It’s a good question, and made me think, "are we running down the wrong the path?"

If you think about it, SMART sort of went about their marketing strategy the polar opposite of, arguably, the most powerful marketing company in the world, Apple.  SMART chose to get their hardware out into the market and let applications be developed by the end user.  Apple, on the other hand, chose to get their iPads, iPhones and iPods out into the market, regulate who makes apps available and profit from their sales.  Both strategies have their merits depending on your point of view.

iplaymathgames.com has thousands of indiviual pdf’s of math games and activities that make math fun.  As I’ve mentioned in this blog before, they’ve … Read More »

Recently, the three Tic Tac Math Interactive math games that are available in SMART Notebook software on iplaymathgames.com received the SMART seal of approval. Classic, Fractions and Algebra were all found to have full functionality in the market leading SMARTboard environment.

This is great news for students and teachers who love to use these great games as “fillers,” team building activities or a reward for a job well done. Tic Tac Math is a fun game for kids whichever version you choose!

Much is said and asked lately about “interactive” games and activities for math.  The number one question that I hear is:  “Are your games interactive?”  What does that really mean?  To most people asking the question, that means a game or activity where a person can either be in front of a computer or Interactive Whiteboard or using a mobile platform of some sort with a game that allows them to interact with it in some manner.  Another, but less “cool,” answer would be a, “do you mean a game or activity that allows two or more people to interact?”

My answer to both questions is, “Yes.”  IPMG does have both types of games and activities available.  IPMG’s goal is to meaningfully transition game and activity content into digital interactive content as soon as possible.  We began with Tic Tac Math … Read More »

It’s one of the most common questions that I hear as we display at meetings and conferences. Below is a bit of a history of our company. A quick word about who may be posting on this Blog. It could be any one of these three people:
Joel Gaslin: Joel is a founder of IPMG Publishing and serves as the managing partner of IPMG. Joel has a business background spanning 20 years in various sales and marketing roles. With five years in the education market, Joel will comment mostly on trends relating to the business side of education and day-to-day things with www.iplaymathgames.com , new product development and promotional activities.
Marty Gaslin: Marty is also a founder of IPMG Publishing. Marty currently works in St. Paul, Minnesota Public Schools as the Secondary Math Supervisor. … Read More »