Gridport, RI is an educational computer program (or "game" as our users tend to call it) designed to help children understand multiplication.  There are many programs on web that provide fancy ways to drill children on their times tables.  The focus of these programs is memorization.  Our program focuses on forming a deeper understand of multiplication and building a visual intuition by allowing users to explore and assimilate their own ideas about multiplication. 

The pedagogical basis for Gridport is inspired by Piaget’s constructivist theory of education where knowledge is not something that can be transmitted as a quantity of information to be memorized. Instead, students must construct their own understandings (schema) of the world and its knowledge. Gridport makes users active participants in their multiplication education by giving them an engaging context for multiplication beyond tables and flash cards. Parents and educators can use Gridport as a starting point for helping children identify real life multiplication problems that exist in their day-to-day lives. 

This is a course project for CS92: Educational Software Seminar.