High on the list of the most mundane things to do in one's life must be memorising the multiplication tables. Our memories paint a picture of a blackboard, covered in columns of numbers and equations behind the "Drill Instructor" cum leather bitting pensive at a very big desk. Nightmares ore made of this. Fear would consume your youthful confidence as your name was called What embarrassment when you couldn't remember the answers. Thank goodness there's someone out there with a little more creativity than the Byzantine educators some of us wore unlucky enough to have! Mathsbooster "disguises" the rote learning of the multiplication tables and the other arithmetic operations behind a game of space invaders. As pieces of space junk fall from geostationary orbit towards the earth, it is the student's task to save the world by having each piece of debris intercepted by a rocket which then carries it safely off into space The rocket however, will only intercept the piece of debris if the answer to an equation is entered via the keyboard. If the equation is wrongly answered, the pieces continue to fall, but if the answer is correct, there's one less piece left falling. There are six pieces at which a rocket must be fired, so each wave" consists of six equations to answer. The speed at which the pieces fall increases with every screen completed, until it's pretty well impossible to beat the pace. The challenge of beating the clock is addictive, even if it all only comes down to solving equations. After every successful completion of two "waves" of debris, the student has to intercept the "shuttle". This makes for a nice sense of achievement. Behind what the child sees, there's more going on The teacher or parent can control the level of difficulty and type of equation being drilled, so as to best help each individual child. Mathsbooster can drill the child in all the four areas of addition, subtraction, division and multiplication, or some combinations of these and for each of these the parent or teacher can determine the precise number range the child will be working with, as well as this, the speed at which the objects fall can also be controlled, to help make the game a challenge for every child. So, the game could effectively be used in a classroom Situation with each child working on their own copy of the program; that copy entirely customised to the needs and weaknesses of that child. At home, Mathsbooster can be used effectively to support the arithmetic work being taught at school, while the child all the while is finding enjoyment and challenge from what used to be mundane. TAU | 
