The big buzz at Nile Garden Friday morning was about the school receiving a $100,000 check.

And while the 130 or students attending presentation ceremonies that made it possible by answering 602,165 math questions correctly during a two-week competition were clearly pumped about the check, that wasn’t the real big news.

In one fifth grade class alone:

*math scores on standardized testing increased 30 percent including a student that nailed a perfect score.

*mastery of fractions — one of the trickiest elementary math skills the State of California expects students to learn — soared.

*a number of students are now performing math at the eighth grade level.

And it is all thanks to a free Internet education game created by a Canadian company co-founded by Alex Peters and Rohan Mahimaker in 2011 as their undergraduate project at the University of Waterloo in Canada.

The role playing game involves participating in battles and casting spells with tasks weaving math skills aligned with comprehension goals in public schools.

Peters said it glosses over frustrations that many young students have when they struggle to master a concept.

The end game – if you will — means when students fail they keep trying again to win the game.

They are not sidelined by discouragement while they learn basic math skills thanks to the game playing roles that they enthusiastically embrace.

“It makes learning fun,” the 38 year-old Peters said Friday.

That might just qualify as one of the largest understatements in the annals of elementary education.

The students were beyond stoked, greeting the Prodigy Education co-CEO as if he were a rock star while repeatedly shouting “Prodigy! Prodigy! Prodigy!”

Carri Morino — who served as the lead teacher for the Nile Garden student effort that secured the Titan Tier championship of the 2026 Prodigy National Cup — noted students immersed themselves in the game while at home.

As such, they were essentially re-enforcing math concepts taught in class through play.

Morino — who attended Nile Garden School, graduated from Manteca High and has taught for 30 years — indicated the level of enthusiasm the Prodigy game generated for learning math skills was impressive.

What is also impressive is the journey students took for Nile Garden School to win the 2026 Prodigy National Cup championship billed as the world’s largest math competition that came with a large cup trophy and the $100,000 prize money.

Morino said they encouraged students in lower levels to not just join their effort but to help mentor them in basic math skills needed to play the game.

They even created a 5,000 Club for those students that managed to answer at least 5,000 math questions correctly during the two-week competition.

The game provides teachers with metrics — basically an ongoing glimpse at where individuals students started at, how they have progressed, and where more work is need. It is much like what standardized testing does.

Peters as a fifth grader didn’t have a problem getting enthusiastic about learning math.

“I loved math as a student,” Peters said back when fifth graders learned it basically by using pencils and paper to work out problems.

But he had cousins that were less than crazy about doing math, got frustrated, and struggled to make inroads allowing repeated failure to discourage them and weaken their resolve to master math skills.

Peters would often help tutor those cousins in math.

Their frustrations and his love of math led to the founding of Prodigy Education.

Beyond the free math program, Prodigy offers similar game approaches for learning basic English skills as well as math and science.

The games are certified by iKeepSafe for compliance with privacy and child Internet safety laws

As for the $100,000, Nile Garden School Principal Debbie Noceti-Ward indicated a committee will be formed to decide how to spend the money.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com