'MathFinder' launches on App Store
A new interactive app by SMU researchers is now available to help students learn math by observing and interacting with real spaces and object around them.
A new math learning game created by researchers at SMU Simmons and SMU Guildhall is now live for iPad on the App Store. Using location-based tracking and visualization tools, 'MathFinder' provides game-based learning to help teach algebraic principles by helping students to identify and picture math all around them.
MathFinder is a collaboration between the non-profit talkSTEM and Southern Methodist University, with funding provided by the National Science Foundation. Partner development and testing sites for MathFinder include some of the Dallas area’s leading arts, learning, and cultural institutions including the Dallas Arboretum, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas Zoo, Frontiers of Flight Museum, GEMS Camp, Girl Scouts STEM Center of Excellence, St. Phillips School and Community Center, Twelve Hills Nature Center, and Voice of Hope Ministries.
At each of these locations, users select "Walkstop" locations and watch short videos or view pictures with text that describe how mathematical principles are present in their surroundings. For example, learners could use the app to discover how a painting by a local Latino artist uses ratio and scale, or how a ramp in downtown was designed with a specific slope to accommodate wheelchairs.
Making Math Relevant and Engaging
MathFinder’s video-enabled mobile app inspires learners by showing them that math is everywhere. The app gives educators a unique set of tools to help students engage with mathematical concepts outside of the classroom environment, demystifying math and encouraging lifelong learning.
In this version release of the game, players are given access to Walkstop videos that have been created by talkStem to provide community-based examples of mathematical noticing to peak math interest and build math confidence. These videos allow learning concepts to be more relevant and visual by:
- Tying concepts to the environment around us
- Helping students to identify and define patterns, geometry, and scale
- Encouraging students to ask their own questions
Project Development is Ongoing
The National Science Foundation research funding for this project has been extended through January of 2027 to allow the team to continue offering camps for learners to play both this app release version and an extended Augmented Reality version which allows even further access to content creation features including live content creation using advanced AR tools.
In 2025, the game was presented to middle and high-school girls in a residential STEAMERS camp at the Engage Dallas Conference for sentiment analysis on the MathFinders AR version. Testers were guided across the SMU campus in two evening trials. User reviews noted how enjoyable it was to have outdoor, hands-on exploration when learning algebraic principles. This helps to make it more visual, interactive, and applicable to everyday life as users begin to notice mathematical patterns in architecture and everyday objects around them—developing new ways of thinking through real-world observation and application.
“Very interactive! Loved it!”
“You don’t have to look hard to find math around you.”
“You start seeing math in everyday things.”
Developer Credits
Lead Game Designer: Elizabeth StringerLead Programmer: Brian Rust
Lead Artist: Martin Sawkins
AR Artist: Joowon MacDowell
AR Development Programmer: Matthew Butler
Backend Development Programmer: Steve Stringer
Guildhall Student and Alumni Contributors: Reed Devany, J.G. Gao, David Garrett, Pranav Jain
Principal Investigators: Candace Walkington, Koshi Dhingra, Anthony Petrosino, Elizabeth Stringer, & Cathy Ringstaff