About Tile Farm

Why We Made Tile Farm

When you ask a high level mathematician to describe math, they usually describe it as beautiful, fun, useful, and full of wonder.  This is in stark contrast to the average child or adult, who often view math as boring and difficult.  We believe negative attitudes towards math are not a result of problems with the subject itself, but with problems in the way math is taught in school.  With this in mind, we set out to build a new way of teaching math that is fun, intuitive, and beautiful from the very start.

What Makes Tile Farm Different

While there are hundreds of math education apps on the market, the following guiding principles have helped us develop a math learning experience that is truly unique:

  • Math learning should relate to diverse subjects ranging from art to science to product design
  • Development of problem solving skills and perseverance should be deeply embedded into the math learning experience
  • Math should be taught like it is used in the real world:  in the context of analyzing and building things
  • Learners should have opportunities to “play” with math and be creative
  • Math learning should be a continuous experience from early childhood to adulthood
  • Lastly, and most importantly, the math learning experience should be joyful 
Shown above is a visual proof of the Pythagorean theorem made in Tile Farm Studio that highlights the interconnectedness between math and art.  On the low end, this pattern can be used to teach preschoolers simple concepts such as vocabulary and counting, while on the high end, it can be used to teach more advanced concepts such as the Pythagorean theorem, trigonometry, or the sum of convergent geometric series.

How Tile Farm Works:

Tile Farm is a suite of three interconnected products that teach math and problem solving, while allowing ample room for users to explore, play, and be creative.  Below is a description of Tile Farm’s suite of products and how they are interconnected.

Tile Farm Academy

Tile Farm Academy is a gamified learning system that adaptively develops learners’ math knowledge and problem solving skills through a set of three daily activities:

  • Mini Games are a set of three short games that gradually develop learners’ math knowledge and problem solving skills.
  • Big Thinker is a more difficult daily puzzle that pushes users to think deeply as they develop their problem solving perseverance.
  • Bright Idea is a daily creative prompt that blends math learning and creativity, while teaching people how to build beautiful patterns in Tile Farm Studio.

Users earn gems by completing their three daily activities, then can spend them in Harvest to collect beautiful geometric patterns and art made in Tile Farm Studio by professional artists.

In Tile Farm Academy, users play games, solve puzzles, complete creative challenges, and collect patterns as they master math and problem solving.  

Tile Farm Studio

Tile Farm Studio is a simple and fun design platform that allows users to endlessly play, create, and explore the intersections of math and art.  When it comes to what can be done in Tile Farm Studio, the sky is the limit!  Here are a few examples of the apps’ diverse uses:

  • Users love using Tile Farm Studio to simply relax, play, explore, and make art
  • You can learn how to make the patterns and art you collected in Tile Farm Academy’s Harvest
  • A kindergartner in Tucson, AZ recently used Tile Farm Studio to design a t-shirt for his uncle, then printed it using Tile Farm Maker
  • Professional designers have used Tile Farm Studio to design things ranging from logos to apparel
  • Through our artist in residence program, professional artists have used Tile Farm Studio to create digital artwork featured in Harvest in Tile Farm Academy
  • Teachers and math education researchers have used Tile Farm Studio to create innovative math lessons
  • Professional mathematicians have used Tile Farm Studio generate hypotheses and theorems 
  • Our team used Tile Farm Studio to design nearly nearly all of the educational content found in Tile Farm Academy, and we even designed the Tile Farm logo using Tile Farm Studio 

In Tile Farm Studio, users can infinitely explore the connections between math and art, with a tool accessible to everyone from preschoolers to professional artists and mathematicians.

Tile Farm Maker

In Tile Farm Maker, users can import their designs from Tile Farm Studio to create real life products such as t-shirts, notebooks, backpacks, or jigsaw puzzles!  Not only is this a great way to make clothes, school supplies, or gifts, but it is a simple and fun way to make math relevant and useful.

Tile Farm Maker provides a natural bridge between math, art, and product design, as users can create anything from clothing, to school supplies, to gifts for their friends and family.