Tag Archives: Dynamic Number

Educational Technology, Elementary Mathematics, Math Software

Exploring Multiples on a Dynamic Number Grid

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What would it take to build a better number grid for young learners? A typical number grid contains 10 columns with the numbers progressing from 1-10, 11-20, 21-30 and so on, from row to row. We decided to upend this tradition and make a dynamic number grid with Web Sketchpad that allows students to choose … Continue Reading ››
Educational Technology, Elementary Mathematics

Make Your Own Fractions

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In my very first Sine of the Times blog post from January 2012, I wrote about the paucity of fractions that young learners typically encounter in their math classes. While they might construct visual representations of 1/2, 2/3, and 8/12, it's unlikely they'll create models of 7/31, 36/19, or 5/101. That's a shame because without … Continue Reading ››
Educational Technology, Elementary Mathematics, Math Software

Stars, Polygons, and Multiples

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I've always found my collaborations with teachers to be a great inspiration for curriculum development, and that was especially true of my work with Wendy Lovetro, an elementary-school teacher in Brooklyn, NY. Wendy coordinated an after-school math club at her school, and I used the setting as an opportunity to develop and field test Sketchpad activities for the … Continue Reading ››
Educational Technology, Elementary Mathematics, Math Software

Raz’s Magic Multiplying Machine

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Here is a question you don't hear very often: What does it feel like to experience multiplication in our bodies? It's a strange question because our typical exposure to multiplication is numerical. I give you two numbers—say, 3 and 5—and you tell me their product, 15. But multiplication need need not be so static and concrete. Back … Continue Reading ››
Educational Technology, Elementary Mathematics, Math Software

Developing Arithmetic Fluency Through “Drill and Thrill”

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In a previous post, I described the game Chisla, an app that succeeds in making basic arithmetic both challenging and tense.  Given a numerical target, you have just 15 seconds to pick numbers from a list of possible addends that will sum to that value. A target of 10 is no big deal, but when the target escalates … Continue Reading ››

Elementary Mathematics

Adding and Subtracting on a Dynamic Number Chart

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Below is a collection of four interactive number charts that we first introduced in our NSF-funded Dynamic Number project. Start by asking students to press the four directional arrows and to explore what they do. The right arrow, for example, moves the shaded square to the right, and wraps the square to the next row up when you … Continue Reading ››
Educational Technology, Elementary Mathematics, Math Software

A Compendium of Elementary Web Sketchpad Activities

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In the short two years since we introduced Web Sketchpad in this blog, we've developed lots of websketches and shared them here. As the number has grown, it's become challenging to keep track of them all. Here then is an annotated list of all the elementary-themed Web Sketchpad activities we've offered. The list includes links to our original … Continue Reading ››
Educational Technology, Elementary Mathematics, Math Software

Understanding Fraction Multiplication

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Last week, Scott and I attended a fraction symposium at NYU, and it made me realize how long it's been since I've written about our Sketchpad work with fractions. Below is a Web Sketchpad model for displaying and solving fraction multiplication problems. Representing fraction multiplication with an area model is a common approach, but it's challenging to sort … Continue Reading ››
Educational Technology, Elementary Mathematics, Math Software

Bunny Times Brings Conceptual Understanding to Multiplication

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Four years ago, my colleague Scott Steketee and I set out to develop an interactive game to help students develop strategies for thinking about and solving multiplication problems. As we examined the existing apps on the market, we discovered that most focused on the drill aspect of learning one's multiplication facts. We set our goals higher. We … Continue Reading ››
Educational Technology, Elementary Mathematics, Math Software

Zooming Integers: Magnifying the Number Line

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In my prior post, I presented a "zooming" number line model that allowed students to estimate the location of a point along a number line and then repeatedly magnify that portion of the number line to obtain ever-finer estimates, accurate to tenths, hundredths, thousandths, and beyond. In a sense I got ahead of myself because I … Continue Reading ››