Category: Virtual Manipulative

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Science Online resources Virtual Manipulative

Virtual Manipulatives for Science

green circuit board
Photo by Miguel Á. Padriñán on Pexels.com

Visualizing scientific concepts like magnetism and gravity can be fun, tedious, or somewhere in-between depending on your perspective. For early elementary students, it is probably hard to find a substitute for concrete models that demonstrate scientific concepts – like planetariums or fruit-models to communicate astronomical concepts.

However, digital simulations seem to have become realistic and interactive enough to be a reasonable substitute (even an improvement) over many traditional lab exercises – especially for upper elementary students and beyond (basically students who are well into the “concrete operations” phase and learning “formal operations”). And, the University of Colorado at Boulder has created a comprehensive, user-friendly, and most importantly – free – repository of these virtual models. I came across their site while trying to look for ways to help students visualize electrical circuits without a lot of set-up and clean-up, and have begun to rely on it for my own education. Hope you find it useful!

https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulations/browse

Categories
Science Online resources Virtual Manipulative

What Causes Tides?

light house on hill
Photo by Zack Melhus on Pexels.com

I’ll admit it – besides “knowing” that tides were caused by the moon’s gravitational pull, I had no idea why tides existed. A science teacher training class forced me to confront this ignorance starting with the simple question – if the moon’s gravitational pull causes tides, why do we have two high tides and two low tides in a day? (the moon’s orbit around the earth takes roughly a month, so tides should basically be dictated by the earth’s rotation – i.e. take 24 hours to go from one high tide to the next).

Digging deeper into the matter, I became pretty frustrated – online resources typically introduced another force (centrifugal force) to explain why the ocean “bulges” towards the moon (and sun, which is another layer in this topic), but it was hard to develop an intuition of how this all works together from the material that I found. Fortunately, people like Ingo Berg exist. His website has an application that finally helped me visualize the forces that shape tides – it might also help your students who need to construct visuals to understand concepts.

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Lesson Plans Fractions Problem Solving Virtual Manipulative

The Cupcake Problem

1. The situation

We have a cupcake recipe for only 1 person, but more people are coming to a party. And…the cupcake recipe has fractions. Most people know how to add and multiply whole numbers like 3 x 3. But 1/3 + 1/3???

Your mission, if you chose to accept it: Modify the recipe below to be enough for 4 people, and show that you have the right answers using fraction strips. The party hosts need to know how much stuff to buy. And they don’t want yucky cupcakes!

2. The Training

This mission is important, so you need to train. I have made many cupcakes, and will be your guide. Here’s what you will do:

First, get to know your team. Ask each other about their favorite food, and if they have ever baked before. Also, ask each person what he or she knows about fractions. All this information will be useful later.

crop group stacking hands together
Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

Second, learn how to use fractions strips (click the link below). These will come in handy if you have to prove that you’re right.

https://www.didax.com/apps/fraction-number-line/

Third, click the button below for a handy-dandy worksheet to do a training run with your guide (that’s me). We will change the recipe to be for 2 people and use fraction strips. We will practice changing the recipe and proving we’re right.

Handy-dandy worksheet

3. The mission

Use the handy-dandy worksheet and the fraction strips to modify the recipe. Sometimes the number of people at the party changes. So be prepared to change the recipe amounts.

Work together in your teams. Make sure all team members agree with your answers.

Return to base when you have completed the mission for debriefing. Your guide will come along in case you have any questions.

mad formal executive man yelling at camera
Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

4. The Debrief

Now for the hard part. The boss will want to make sure your recipe is correct. Use the fraction strips or any other tools you have to convince him that your cupcakes will not be yucky. Good luck!

Categories
Mathematics Online resources Fractions Virtual Manipulative

Fraction Strips

pexels-photo.jpg
Photo by Miguel Á. Padriñán on Pexels.com

Students who are not yet “fully operational” or able to reason using abstract concepts, can still learn form mathematical concepts with support. They typically need to develop these abstract representations of concepts in three stages, using: 1) concrete representations (like a geo-board) ; 2) semi-concrete representations (like a drawing); and 3) abstract representations (like a formula). While concrete “manipulatives,” like base-ten blocks, are widely used and effective in introducing concepts like place-value, evidence suggests that “virtual manipulatives” can be similarly effective.

Toytheater has an excellent selection of “virtual manipulatives” that students can use online, including a realistic version on fraction strips or fraction blocks. The image below will take you to their website (in a new tab) where you can explore their fraction strip app, along with other virtual manipulatives.

Click on the image to go to toy theater.

Comments and suggestions are always welcome. Thanks for visiting!