As the world undergoes rapid changes, it is impossible to predict what challenges will arise in the future, but one thing is certain: there will be plenty of them. Thus, it is crucial that we equip Australian students with the skills needed to effectively solve these problems and build their critical thinking and reasoning skills.

 

Problem solving is an essential life skill that can open up a world of educational and employment opportunities for students.

 

AMT's mission is to be a leader in helping young Australians reach their problem-solving potential using maths and algorithmics.

 

Problem solving requires students to employ a range of different strategies and skills to find the solution or solutions. It builds creativity, persistence, logic and reasoning skills and within any one problem, students can face a number of different mathematical or algorithmic concepts.

The Australian Maths Trust’s vision was for an innovative solution to transform its competition content with technology and interactive tools into a maths resource that teachers can use as a teaching tool in the classroom.

 

From this, the concept for the Problemo platform was formed and developed. It is now a comprehensive online mathematics portal that can be used by schools, teachers, and students to improve the teaching and learning of mathematical problem solving.

 

The platform offers engaging and interactive mathematics problems for students of all ages. 

 

Problemo is designed to be user-friendly and accessible, with a range of tools and features that make it easy for students to learn and practice mathematical problem-solving skills.

 

It allows teachers to track student progress and identify areas for improvement. This helps teachers develop targeted teaching strategies and interventions to support student learning. Additionally, teachers can use the platform as a tool for assessment and evaluation.

 

 

After a standard solutions architecture and UX/UI design process, our implementation involved several unique aspects.

 

The established service provider for content (maths and logic problems) and competition functionality continued to act as the point of truth for most information, so our Problemo solution required API access to that data. Our data architecture team defined the requirements and guided the service provider’s efforts to create an API that suited the needs of the overall solution.

 

We implemented the ChargeBee subscription management service to manage payments and expiration of subscriptions, including web hooks to close the loop between our platform and the payment processor (for expired credit cards etc).

 

Aligns to the Australian Curriculum

The problems are all classified according to the content strands and topics of the Australian Curriculum, which allows the platform to make it easier for teachers to align their lesson content to the curriculum.

Plan, teach and differentiate

Teachers can search for maths problems that relate to a specific content area.

Teachers can differentiate problems for a range of abilities in the classroom with different levels of difficulty shown on every problem.

Teachers can use Problemo to teach live in the classroom or remotely.

The Problemo solution has received positive feedback from schools, teachers, and students. The platform has been praised for its engaging and interactive approach to supporting teacher's in teaching problem solving and its ability to improve student confidence and performance. 

 

Additionally, the platform has been used in preparation for various mathematics competitions, including the Australian Mathematics Competition, to support student skill development and identify high-performing students. The Australian Maths Trust continues to update and improve the Problemo solution, adding new features and resources to enhance mathematics education in Australia.

 

Since the Problemo platform launched in 2020, it has attracted 10,500 users in the past 3 years, and served up 200,000 sessions for teachers and students in the last 12 months.

 

"Creative Intersection is a great outfit – very professional, experienced, reliable and a real pleasure to work with."

Nathan Ford, CEO

Australian Maths Trust