How to play
Each puzzle lays a set of numbers out as equal weights on a beam above a number line — one weight sitting over each value. You drag the red triangle, the fulcrum, along the line to the point where the beam would balance, and the beam tips toward the weights as you move it. That balance point is the mean. Tap Check Balance when the readout looks right: land inside the green target zone and the beam levels with a chime and the worked calculation appears. Sets grow from three numbers to six, the target zone narrows as you improve, and at the harder levels the mean can be a decimal. Balance eight beams to win.
What your child will learn
- Read and interpret data displays
- Draw conclusions from data
Skills practiced
- Data literacy
- Critical thinking
Why this age range
Built for grades 4–5 because that's when statistics first enters the curriculum and when division facility is reliable enough to make the arithmetic painless. Earlier grades can play the easiest level (three small numbers with a whole-number mean and a wide target zone) but won't get the underlying concept; older children benefit from the full range — six numbers, decimal means, a narrow zone — and can transition smoothly into median and mode in later grades.
Curriculum standards
- CCSS.MATH.3.MD.B.3
- CCSS.MATH.6.SP.A.1
Notes for parents
Mean is the first statistic most children meet, and the balance-scale framing matters more than the formula. A child who can chant "add them up and divide by how many" but can't say why the answer balances the set hasn't really learned the mean — they've memorised a procedure. Great Balance flips that: the balance is the definition, and the arithmetic falls out of it. Encourage your child to predict before tapping; the prediction is the mathematics.