Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects have seen a decline in interest over past years, raising concern over the waning desire for younger generations to pursue careers in those fields.
Mathematics happens to be the foundation and building blocks for future generations of engineers and scientists, making it crucial to instil interest in the subject in the minds of the young.
One such Education Technology (EdTech) company, Ai Tech House, has been cultivating interest in Mathematics since 2019 through its exclusive partnership with Japan’s leading Abacus Method Mental Calculation education technology, SoroTouch.
Powered by a data-driven approach with big data, SoroTouch is able to digest childrens’ learning patterns to provide a more customised and unique challenge for individual students based on their learning data. Through Ai Tech House, the leading technology has since been introduced to hundreds of Malaysian children aged five to eight. This partnership seeks to instil the love for mathematics and mental calculation in children from a very young age, as it unlocks their potential for the subject early on.
“While schools are very effective in teaching children social and communication skills, they often fail to nurture mathematical skills due to the rigid education system. This isn’t the fault of our hardworking and dedicated teachers, it is just how the syllabus is structured. That said, we have to understand that not everyone can absorb and learn through a one-size-fits-all curriculum offered in conventional establishments. Ai Tech House’s goal is to allow all students to master mathematics through personalised and uniquely crafted classes,” stated Ai Tech House Founder and Malaysian Human Calculator, West Wong.
At Ai Tech House, students using SoroTouch are exposed to a new method of learning and developing a love for Mathematics. SoroTouch Centre System converts the conventional monotonous class structure into highly intuitive and attractive games to keep the learning process fun and engaging. They do that through the cultivation of the “4Cs” – Critical Thinking, Collaboration, Creativity, and Communication embedded into the digital syllabus as well as honing a growth mindset and encouraging values such as perseverance and discipline.
Furthermore, as part of the program’s data analysis functionality and offerings, SoroTouch analyses and processes more than 500,000 questions daily to better curate and structure questions and challenges for the students. This unique model allows the program to highlight and identify individual students’ areas of weaknesses and assign personalised challenges and questions based on the data collected on previously completed work to help each individual student improve, ultimately reassessing the one-size-fits-all approach that the conventional class would adopt.
Furthermore, the software also includes a performance tracking element for parents to keep track of their child’s progress in their respective classes. This tool requires no manual submission, and detailed reports garnered from the data collected from the software are automatically sent to parents and educators alike – for their easy monitoring and reference to ensure every student’s success.
“Inspired by the widely implemented and highly popular abacus calculation system, coupled with our patented technology, SoroTouch allows students to develop mental calculation skills more effectively at a rate faster than before! In the past, only 6% of students managed to master mental calculations in the span of 4 years. With SoroTouch, more than 60% of students have exhibited increased proficiency in mental maths in just 2 years, or even less! This is made possible by combining the 2000-year-old abacus calculation method with our patented technology. SoroTouch started out in 2016 with only 2 centres in Japan, today we have 120 centres in 7 countries all over the world including The United States, China, and Singapore, which goes to show the effectiveness and popularity of SoroTouch,” mentioned Yasunobu Hashimoto, President and CEO of SoroTouch.
By employing a simple storyline, SoroTouch’s students can easily connect with the characters resulting in them investing more time and effort into the animated “missions”. The games, coupled with vibrant graphics and cute avatars have been proven to assist with children’s concentration levels, which research has shown to be generally low at that age.
“Our syllabus not only teaches students the most effective way to master mental maths, but also to develop a growth mindset and instil qualities such as perseverance, which will be an invaluable skill that will accompany them long after they graduate from our classes. The SoroTouch system adapts to the child’s learning pace and will prepare the best questions based on their comprehension and performance for faster and more efficient learning. Once they warm up to the courses, coupled with the highly curated classes, they will master this skill in no time at all. Thus, in the long run, this will pave the way for these young minds to be more open to STEM subjects by familiarizing them with numbers and mental calculations at a young age,” added West Wong.
Besides that, to further develop the collaboration and communication skills of their young students, Ai Tech House has been enrolling its students in multiple international mental calculation competitions, with the most recent one being the HaruFes in March of 2021. Students from Malaysia were pitted against other SoroTouch students from around the world in the international Mental Calculation festival, which witnessed the Malaysian students winning Gold Medals in the addition/subtraction, multiplication, division and Flash Anzan categories.
Aside from providing an interactive learning environment for the children, Ai Tech House also offers the SoroHome and SoroRoom programs which are made exclusively available for educators and educational managers to further streamline their internal HR and admin work. SoroHome is an easy to use class management system for educational managers to allocate timetables and analyze learning data for each student, while the SoroRoom program can be used by teachers to keep track of the students’ learning progress in both the physical classroom and online sessions.
Moving forward, Ai Tech House is looking to further boost its educational efforts and further spearhead the EdTech industry by unlocking the inner potential of children in mathematics and numeracy subjects, paving the way for a potential STEM-based future for these young students. To learn more about Ai Tech House or to book a free trial session, please visit https://www.aitechkid.com/.
