Fourteen- and 15-year-olds can be a tough crowd — especially when it comes to math.

But featuring the unpopular subject in an interactive video game and turning it into a competition managed to transform hundreds of Waipahu High School freshmen on Friday morning into a pretty boisterous bunch.

"I was impressed," said teacher Amelia Cook, who coordinated the algebra-focused competition that riled up more than 450 students. "I couldn’t even hear myself (because of the cheering)."

Four of the school’s seven Small Learning Communities for freshmen packed the cafeteria from 8:15 to 11:45 a.m. Friday to compete in the school’s first-ever DimensionU House Cup Championship Tournament, Cook said. DimensionU, formerly Tabula Digita, is a company that produces multiplayer educational video games.

"It’s good they’re having fun learning something important," said Carl Matsu­moto, the school’s assistant principal. "This is the first time we had such a large competition, so it was exciting."

The game’s setting is reminiscent of the "Halo" video game series, without the violence. The object is for a player, working alone or on a team, to overcome obstacles and answer multiple-choice math questions to earn points. The player or team with the most points after a number of timed rounds wins.

"It’s really helped them out, because the kids are so good with games and technology," algebra teacher Sue Cheung said. "(But) to be a serious gamer you have to answer the question correctly, so your math has to be there. And if you don’t answer correctly, you might be playing, but you’re not going to be the high scorer."

Cook, who recently left her traditional teaching position to become the school’s math coach, said she first used the virtual game in her classroom four years ago. She hosted her own class competitions over the years and decided to turn the game into a learning community competition for the first time this year.

"This tournament is just to help the kids come together as one and kind of have pride in their ‘house’ — in their smaller learning communities, and just support each other in math," she said.

Freshman Brycen Lee, a member of the winning house, Invictus, agreed.

"I feel that it’s nice because my house is noticed," the 14-year-old said. Invictus focuses on industrial engineering technology services.

Cook said she’s seen students become more interested in learning class material because of the game, and it can make a difference in the grade book.

"I’ve see students who come to class like, ‘I don’t want to be here; why am I here? Why do we even have to learn math?’ then (get) to a point where (they) are (saying), ‘OK, Miss, what do I need to learn in order to be successful in the game?’" she said. "I’ve tried it where I focused on one topic … and then I tested them after, and I’m going to say about 95 percent of the students scored … better than they would (have)."

Cook said she thinks the game is an effective teaching tool because it combines the modern conceptual teaching approach with the familiarity that comes from repetition.

"When I was growing up, it was just drill-and-kill math," she said. "We’re trying to shift into more conceptual learning, more application, but we still have to balance the two. So in order to close that achievement gap, we want to try to use the game to drill that application in that (specific) content or topic area."

Friday’s competition covered a range of topics such as fractions, decimals and percents; inverse operations; solving linear equations; and order of operations.

A virtual game room, as it’s called, can accommodate up to 16 players. Four students from each learning community were chosen at random to compete in the first six rounds. The final round featured the best four players from each team chosen by their peers.

"It was fun, but it’s kind of scary because all the other houses are watching you play, and then you’re challenging other people," Lee said of his turn to participate.

Before the House Cup was awarded, students stood on cafeteria tables and chairs screaming and chanting for their house’s name to be called. A drumroll on the tables rattled through the room, and Invictus was crowned with the coveted title.

Jumping and hugging each other, the students gathered around the House Cup, which features blank nameplates around the square base waiting to be engraved with the names of future winning teams.

Cook said she hopes to hold the event again in March or April so students and teachers can have more time to prepare and learn the ins and outs of the game.

"We rarely see support in math, so that’s what we wanted to do, and that’s why we’re going to try to continue this for many years," she said.

"At least they have something (to make them think), ‘I’m going to train now for this, you know, we’ve got to win now; we’ve got to beat Invictus.’"