Nov 05 2007
Hands on math — online?
How many times while teaching algebra have you used your hands when trying to illustrate balancing an equation while solving it? Well, flap those hands no longer – check out the virtual balance beam on the National Library of Virtual Manipulatives! Hook this baby up with a data projector and you have the whole class’s attention! Have a student that needs extra reinforcement of this concept? Set them down at a computer and let them work through a few examples.
This site has over a dozen different java based applets which demonstrate concepts from probability to functions. The game Towers of Hanoi is also available here which asks the player to move disks from one peg to another in as few moves as possible, remembering that one cannot stack a larger disk on top of a smaller disk. It’s harder than you think!
Looking for other math topics? Here is the main chart that you can peruse. They are divided by grade level and mathematical concepts. These are also just plain fun to play with!
