Information for parents

Math Garden is a new web based training-tracking system to playfully train and measure mathematical skills. Math Garden is developed by the Psychological Methods department of the University of Amsterdam (UvA) and is now part of Oefenweb.nl, a spin-off company of the UvA.

Math Garden's features

• Playful exercises: Math Garden offers children a challenging web environment where they can practice and learn math in exciting ways. They can even see their own progress.

• Adaptive: This means that the level of the exercises automatically adapts to the skills of each child. The problems are chosen so that each child can complete approximately three-quarters of them. Therefore, it is possible that a child will get a difficult problem or a very easy one, but each child (regardless of their level) will solve 75% of their problems correctly. Since Math Garden is adaptive, children of the same age can practice different kinds of exercises, without the need for the teacher to adjust the program.

• Tracking: The Garden Center gives detailed information about children's individual math development and their strong and weak points. Educators can use Math Garden as a frequent student tracking system and test instrument to determine children's level.

• Online exercises: Math Garden is an online program, so it can be used at school or at home.

Science and education side by side

Math Garden was developed by the University of Amsterdam (UvA) Psychological Methods department under Professor Han van der Maas's supervision to study the progress of mathematical skills. Since 2009, Math Garden has been the product of Oefenweb.nl, a spin-off company of the UvA. The UvA and Oefenweb.nl seek to bridge the gap between education and science. They use the anonymous data collected from the Math Garden, for scientific research with the goal of making new scientific insights which in turn improve Math Garden and math education.

Confidentiality of research data

Schools with a subscription to the Math Garden program give Oefenweb.nl and the University of Amsterdam permission to use the anonymous Math Garden data of their pupils. The data in this research will only be used to improve Math Garden and possibly for publication in scientific journals. The personal data of the children will never be used and the anonymity of the children will remain guaranteed.

Voluntary participation

Please let us know if you do not wish for the anonymous performance data of your child(ren) to be used. We guarantee that by request their information will not be saved. You can withdraw your permission at any moment, without explanation and without any consequence to your child. Your child's data will not be used for any type of research.

Further questions

If you have any questions regarding the research that is done for Math Garden by Oefenweb.nl and the University of Amsterdam, you can contact the school of your child or the responsible researchers, drs. Marthe Straatemeier or prof. dr. Han van der Maas. For complaints about the research, you can contact a member of the Ethics Commission of the department of Psychology of the University of Amsterdam, dr. L. Waldorp.

Kind regards,

Drs. M. Straatemeier
Prof. dr. H. L. J. van der Maas