Excerpts from student journals:

At the BiMathlon we did lots of fun math activities. One activity we did was The Factory. The Factory was a game on the computer where you would create shapes using certain tools given to you. The tools were things like The Rotator, The Puncher, and The Striper. The Rotator was a tool that would turn shapes to the degrees that you set it to. The Puncher made holes in the shapes that were given to you. The Striper made stripes on the shapes given to you. We would use all of these tools to make shapes. We would make the shape that was shown in the upper left corner. We could choose our level during the game. The hardest level was purple and the easiest level was red. Every time we won we would get another game. Playing The Factory was fun.
Stuart

The Factory is a game of angles and shapes. I had a shape shown for me at a corner. I picked the same shape, then picked the color and pattern machines. I pressed a button that said, “Build It.” It made the pattern for me. When it is done making it, a machine (that I didn’t have to pick) took the shape and matched it with the sample. If I made it the same as the targeted shape the computer said, “Good job! Excellent!” If I was bored at a level, I could go to another level and it would ask me “Are you sure that you want to go to level two?” or whatever level. I learned about angles, shapes, and flow charts.
Sabrina

On the first day of the BiMathlon, we did a program called “The Factory.” It is a program that has a lot of tools. There is a striper switch that puts a stripe in different colors and sizes. There is also a puncher switch that punches holes in the shape, and a rotator, which rotates the shape so it can be stamped with one of the materials. The first thing we had to do is look at the shape and pick its shape and color. Then we had to decide what to do to the shape like if it needed to have a stripe on it or it needed to be punched. When we think we are done with the shape, we click done to see if the shape we made matched with the target shape.
Laura