Solve Me Moble Math

Did you ever try to make a mobile in school when you were younger?  Do you remember how hard it was to get it to balance properly and when you finally did it, you celebrated.  Well, while reading up on emoji math, there was mention of something called Solve me Mobiles. 

Solve Me Mobiles math is an online math place developed by the National Science Foundation. It also works on both computers and iPads.  In addition, there is a free app available for the iPad if you don't want to use the browser on the iPad.The idea behind this site is when both sides of the mobile are balanced, the values are correct.  If the values are not correct, then it is unbalanced.

This site follows the same idea as the emoji math site except it uses basic shapes to represent values.  The site is divided into two parts, play and build. 

In the play section, the first 60 problems are designed to explore how this mobile algebra site works.  Some of the problems have totals while others have you make an educated guess.  The second section is the puzzler section with more complex problems such as 3x + 2 = 2x -4 represented by fractions.  The final section is the master section has 80 complex problems.The problems are designed to begin with simple problems moving to the more complex problems as a person develops their skills. 

The second part is designed to allow anyone to create their own balance puzzles.  It allows you to choose the shapes and the values for the shapes so you could actually take an equation and set it up on the balance to find the answers.  Its also great for just letting students explore the concept of equality between the two sides of the balance.

For more information on how to use this site in class, there is a short video on this web page on using it to learn the logic of solving systems.  The video is just over 2.5 minutes long. The creator of the video states their research indicates Solve me mobiles helps math students transfer knowledge better.

One teacher who uses this site in class as a warm-up, assigns specific problems to do before taking time to lead a conversation on which strategies they used to solve the problems.  I love this idea because it helps students develop their ability to communicate mathematical ideas.  In addition, it engages students and builds the knowledge they need to use in solving standard algebraic equations.

Another teacher who used this site had students build their own puzzles only after they created them on paper so they knew exactly what they wanted to create and to make sure it works.  Do a quick search and you'll find several videos out there on the site.

I love playing with the puzzles myself.  I'm think my students are going to have fun playing with this site and the emoji math site.  One thing I learned early on, is that if you send them to a web site, its best to put the URL in a QR code to make it easier for students to get to the site.

Let me know what you think.  Tomorrow, I'll be sharing a site I found filled with links for those of us who teach math.  Have a great day.