Blair was demonstrating the game "Power Lines" for young students at Piedmont Elementary. The game gets progressively more difficult with each level.

"'Power Lines 3' is the hardest one," Blair said. "I don't know anyone who can figure it out."    

Blair and two of her classmates at Horace Mann helped the young students learn about the games available on Learn 21, the state Department of Education's newest website geared solely toward students.

Donna Landin, coordinator of eLearning at the state Department of Education, described the site as a resource where students in elementary and middle school can play games and fine-tune their math skills. For high school students, it's less about games, instead featuring videos to help them improve their algebra, geometry, trigonometry and pre-calculus skills.

"We have hundreds of videos to help high school students," Landin said.

Blair played the game "Lure of the Labyrinth," which helps students with basic math, fractions and dividing even numbers. Players search for their missing pets but have to feed nasty monsters and take on other tasks, using numbers all the while.

Kyra Moss, Blair's classmate at Horace Mann, was playing the game "Villainy, Inc." and trying to secretly stop "this not so really evil" bad guy, Dr. Eugene Wick.

Moss signed up as one of Wick's trusted agents in his attempt to build a gigantic golf course right in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico.

"You try to make him spend the most money because you know he won't check the math," she said.

The idea is to ruin his scheme of ecological destruction and world domination.

"This is addition and multiplication," Moss said of the game. "It's not really that hard."

Moss also showed how students practice volume and distances in Villainy, Inc. The math helps determine how much kelp, chemicals, wood and rope are needed to build the golf course in the Gulf.

"I don't think they would put it there now because of the oil spill," said Moss, who's kept up with current events.

Horace Mann Principal Mickey Blackwell recalled sitting down at a computer with Assistant Principal Joshua Stowers to play an advanced level of "Power Lines." Students gathered around as they tried to solve the number game.

"It was like a giant puzzle and Donna [Landin] got up there and explained to the kids how it relates to algebra," Blackwell said.

Terrance Pankey, a fourth-grade student at Piedmont, moved along through "Power Lines" and reached the fourth level.

Pankey, who was asked if the puzzles got harder to solve each time, almost answered, but classmate Chloe Johnson sighed, "Yes, of course it is!"               

Piedmont teacher Amanda Ansell guided students like Pankey and Johnson through a resource comparing analog clocks with digital ones.

"2:47 is almost 3 o'clock, but not quite there," she told the kids.   

Children at Horace Mann and elsewhere picked games and did other work to help develop Learn 21, Landin said.  

About 20 Horace Mann students are in what Blackwell calls an "intensive 21st century math laboratory" that meets in the mornings before school starts.

Landin teaches the class before she starts her day at the state Department of Education.

"Donna's day starts out at Horace Mann," Blackwell said. "That's an extremely dedicated educator."

By guiding the children at Piedmont through the website, students like Blair and Moss learned not only math skills, but also speaking and interpersonal skills, Blackwell said.              

Landin hopes Learn 21 becomes an "anytime, anywhere, anyplace spot for learning" where children play on the website at home.

Science and social studies will be added to the website before school starts, along with more math resources, she said.

Reach Davin White at davinwh...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1254.