The free educational app Maggie-The Treasure of Seshat is an idea by Enrica Ficai Veltroni and Caterina Primi, members of the SI Club Firenze. The project immediately crossed the borders of the SI Club Firenze, gaining the attention of 48 italian SI Clubs who sponsored it. Patrizia Salmoiraghi, president of the SI Italian Union, supported it. A well-known mathematics professor, Pietro di Martino, from Pisa University took care of the scientific content and the development of the app for smartphone and tablets was entrusted to Studio Evil in Bologna.
The app has been designed, in Italian and English, for primary school students from 7 to 12 years of age. It is a puzzle math game. Maggie is looking for a special treasure which belonged to Seshat, the ancient Egyptian goddess of arithmetics and writing. In Maggie’s shoes, the players experience an adventure in which solving the increasingly difficult riddles is the key to move on to the next phase. The game suggests the intellectual challenge of mathematics and has designed its riddles based on five significant themes, namely: basic arithmetic skills, the greatest common divisor, the minimum common multiple, isometries and similarities, graphs theory, calculations of probability.
Maggie is a witty and brave girl. She accepts challenges and transforms them into enjoyable growth opportunities. The choice of this character is meant to convey a clear message against gender stereotypes which may develop during the early school years and are often consolidated.
The launch of the app will be in Florence on September 29, 2018. The free download will be available from PlayStore, AppleStore and the website appmaggie.com.
Maggie –The Treasure of Seshat will be conveyed also through a widespread primary school textbook (in 2019), which will reach up to 50,000 families throughout Italy and it will attend science and educational festivals around Italy: a very good communication chance for the Soroptimist International brand and mission.
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