The latest articles on DEV Community by Jim (@jimulle). https://dev.to/jimulle https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=90,height=90,fit=cover,gravity=auto,format=auto/https:%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fuser%2Fprofile_image%2F4154811%2F2e9c26bc-7739-4743-a344-5f979c7f69bc.jpg https://dev.to/jimulle en Jim Sat, 03 Oct 2026 04:22:28 +0000 https://dev.to/jimulle/math-helper-5th-grade-16fo https://dev.to/jimulle/math-helper-5th-grade-16fo <p><em>This is a submission for the <a href="https://dev.to/challenges/hacktoberfest-weekend-2026-10-01">Hacktoberfest Weekend Challenge: Build for a Friend</a></em></p> <h2> What I Built </h2> <p>My 5th grader needs some help with math. I wanted to build a simple app to take a homework problem she was struggling with and create a few additional sample problems that exercise the same concept but with different values.</p> <h2> Demo </h2> <p> <iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/EO0ehZuTpvE" width="710" height="399"> </iframe> </p> <h2> Code </h2> <div class="ltag-github-readme-tag"> <div class="readme-overview"> <h2> <img src="https://assets.dev.to/assets/github-logo-5a155e1f9a670af7944dd5e12375bc76ed542ea80224905ecaf878b9157cdefc.svg" alt="GitHub logo"> <a href="https://github.com/jimulle" rel="noopener noreferrer"> jimulle </a> / <a href="https://github.com/jimulle/math_homework_helper" rel="noopener noreferrer"> math_homework_helper </a> </h2> <h3> My 5th grader needs some help with math. I wanted to build a simple app to take a homework problem she was struggling with and create a few additional sample problems that exercise the same concept but with different values. </h3> </div> <div class="ltag-github-body"> <div id="readme" class="md"><div class="markdown-heading"> <h1 class="heading-element">Math Practice Generator</h1> </div> <p>A tiny local web app for generating practice variants of a 5th-grade math problem Type in a problem your kid got stuck on, and a local Gemma model (via Ollama) will generate new problems that test the same skill at the same difficulty, with different numbers — so your kid can practice without having memorized the answer.</p> <p>Runs 100% locally. No internet connection needed once set up.</p> <div class="markdown-heading"> <h2 class="heading-element">One-time setup</h2> </div> <p>Already done for you in this session:</p> <ol> <li>Installed <a href="https://ollama.com" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Ollama</a> via Homebrew and started it as a background service (<code>brew services start ollama</code>).</li> <li>Pulled the <code>gemma3:4b</code> model (<code>ollama pull gemma3:4b</code>).</li> </ol> <p>If you ever reinstall or move this to another machine:</p> <div class="highlight highlight-source-shell notranslate position-relative overflow-auto js-code-highlight"> <pre>brew install ollama brew services start ollama ollama pull gemma3:4b</pre> </div> <div class="markdown-heading"> <h2 class="heading-element">Running the app</h2> </div> <div class="highlight highlight-source-shell notranslate position-relative overflow-auto js-code-highlight"> <pre>./run.sh</pre> </div> <p>This creates a Python virtual environment (first run only), installs dependencies, and starts the app at <strong><a href="http://127.0.0.1:5050" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">http://127.0.0.1:5050</a></strong>.</p> <p>Open that URL…</p></div> </div> <div class="gh-btn-container"><a class="gh-btn" href="https://github.com/jimulle/math_homework_helper" rel="noopener noreferrer">View on GitHub</a></div> </div> <h2> How I Built It </h2> <p>I leveraged Claude code to help with development (my usual tool) but the app itself relies on Gemma via Ollama to generate the problem variants.</p> <h2> Why Does Open Innovation Matter? </h2> <p>This project not only afforded me personally the opportunity to try out open source models and local first AI, it allowed me to create an app that can support my daughter's learning journey without the need for wifi (that's a parenting win to me).</p> <h2> Prize Categories </h2> <p>Gemma: I leveraged the Gemma model and after basic testing received comparable results to using a flagship non-local model</p> devchallenge weekendchallenge hf26challenge