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Fun-loving Teachers Battle Math Phobia by Creating Emmy Award® Winning Videos

With the pressure on to raise standardized test scores, a team of fun-loving Los Angeles teachers developed the video series “MATH PARK” to make elementary level math fun and effective.


WEBWIRE –

LOS ANGELES, Ca., September 15, 2011 – With the pressure on to raise standardized test scores, a team of fun-loving Los Angeles teachers developed the video series “MATH PARK” to make elementary level math fun and effective.

“Designing MATH PARK was an exciting challenge,” said Robert Sharp, MATH PARK Producer and award-winning instructional coach.

“After examining student achievement data for grades 2-4, our instructional team focused the video series on the most heavily tested curricular areas,” said Sharp.

With the national standards determined, Sharp along with classroom teachers Michael Martin and Kiffen Madden-Lunsford, poured on the fun.

MATH PARK is a computer generated community park run by the grandfatherly Park Ranger A. Rith Metic, played by Emmy Award® winning actor Mark Archuleta.

MATH PARK is also populated by a goofy-troupe of characters who make learning math fun and interactive, such as the pencil-slinging cowboy Math Dillon and twin superheroes Denominator and Numerator.

Innovative visual designer Roberto De Palma brought his special effects magic from Hollywood to create the colorful CGI world of MATH PARK.

What began as a labor of love became a winning formula:
In August MATH PARK won a Los Angeles Area Emmy Award® in the category of Instructional Programming and made the 2011 list of Dr. Toy’s Top 100 Children’s Products.

Sharp says he couldn’t be happier about the recent recognition.
“The Emmy Award® validated our belief that MATH PARK is an educational experience that is also entertaining. Dr. Toy gives us the nationally recognized seal of approval that assures conscientious parents that MATH PARK is good for their kids.”

The MATH PARK series addresses the following math concepts:

  • the number system,
  • writing large numbers in standard and expanded form
  • comparing large numbers
  • strategies for learning the multiplication facts, and
  • understanding the basic concepts of fractions


“Those topics can be tough for students,” said Sharp, “but we found ways to make it fun.”

DVDs of MATH PARK can be purchased at the website: www.mathparkvideos.org, which also offers free print materials, games, and teacher guides that correspond to the videos.

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TESTIMONIALS

Second grade teacher Sonya Snyder from Tuscaloosa, Alabama loves that MATH PARK teaches fractions with a rainbow cake.
“Fractions are difficult for children to understand. After watching MATH PARK we celebrated their success by making a rainbow cake in the classroom!” said Snyder.

MATH PARK is a hit even with its biggest critics – the second through fourth grade students who are its target audience.
“It’s always a treat for my students when a MATH PARK episode is shown. Even my most reluctant math learners are engaged,” said teacher Natalie Escobedo of Los Angeles.

Susana Cano, another educator added, “My students enjoyed it and did not stop asking to watch it over and over again.”
MATH PARK Producer Robert Sharp points out that the DVD format allows teachers to review the short video lessons periodically.

“As educators we work very hard to get students to master a skill and then are frustrated when they forget them during standardized testing. MATH PARK is a quick and fun way to help students review these skills,” said Sharp.

Lucky Cat Productions, located in Pasadena, California, produces MATH PARK.

MATH PARK videos are used in classrooms across California, New York, Iowa and Oregon. Los Angeles public television station KLCS broadcasts the show weekly and Learn 360, a digital educational streaming service, also offers MATH PARK to its subscribers throughout the United States and Canada.

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