Virtual Manipulatives Are Great For Online Instruction.

 We are all undergoing fundamental changes to our teaching right now.  One day, classes were live and the next, teachers were scrambling to figure out how to teach virtually.  I don't know many teachers whose training classes taught them to teach virtually.

It can be difficult to send all the physical manipulatives home to students while expecting them not to loose pieces before they return them at the end of the year, if then.

So this opens up the perfect opportunity to use virtual or digital manipulatives.  No parts to loose and these are available as apps or online.  Manipulatives are great for representing abstract concepts in a concrete way.  They also help students make sense of problems because they form a visual representation of various concepts and lead students to developing a deeper, richer understanding of the concepts.

In addition, manipulatives help students build connections between the abstract concept and its representation. Virtual manipulatives have the ability to change in size, shape, or color which allows students to make more examples than the physical ones.  Some of the virtual manipulatives are programmed to provide hints and feedback to the students.

When selecting the manipulative, be sure it is linked to the concept being taught rather than using it as a separate activity.  They must be an major part of the progression from concrete to abstract.  They can make learning more interesting for students.  So time to look at some sites to find virtual manipulatives.

1.  Mathigon has a variety of manipulatives available on one page.  On one page, they have polygons, number tiles, number bars, fraction bars, algebra tiles, pentominos, an a tangram.  I have this activity in geometry where I have students take certain parts of the tangram to create other shapes like a concave pentagon or a convex heptagon.  This is a web based application and quite easy to use.

2.  Brainingcamp has manipulatives covering everything from reading a clock to base 10 blocks, to rods, to Algebra tiles.  I have their fractions app on my iPad and I like it because they have an introduction, before covering equivalent fractions, common denominators,  comparing and ordering them before showing how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide fractions. Each topic has a lesson, the manipulative, questions, and a challenge.  

Their Algebra tiles manipulatives are said to cover adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing integers, modeling and simplifying expressions, solving equations, solving systems of equations, adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing polynomials, factoring trinomials, or completing the square.  These manipulatives can be used on just about any type of device.  Furthermore, the website says they are giving free access until the end of June.

They have an app called manipulative of the week which allows subscribers to access all their activities but for those who are not subscribers, it lets people check out one each week to see how they work.

3. Mathies is a site for the Ontario K - 12 school system.  The offer manipulatives for use either via the web or as free apps for either apple based or android based devices.  In order to do the web based applications, your computer needs the most up to date flash.  They have apps to cover pattern blocks, money, fraction strips, fraction representative match, color tiles, and a couple of other things.

They offer their own version of algebra tiles complete with instructions on how to use it for integers, expressions, multiplying polynomials, factoring, solving equations, and tells you about all the tools that come with the algebra tiles.  These are all free.

4. Geoboards by math learning center is a virtual geoboard complete with virtual rubber bands.  It has a web version, Chrome version, and apple based version, all for free.  Anything you want to do with a geoboard, you can do with this.  At my last school, I had this app on my iPads and the kids loved using it.  I've used this app when we did area and perimeter in geometry among other topics.  I often asked students to create as many different rectangles as they could with  32 square units.  They'd make one, take a screen shot, find another with another screen shot, and at the end, they could put it together to submit.

5. Geogebra has a section with virtual manipulatives ranging from pattern blocks to color tiles, to rulers and protractors.  I like the virtual protractor because it allows you to set the angle before you practice using the protractor to measure it.  It also gives you the choice of two different types of protractors and they can check their answer after they get an answer.


6.  National Library of Virtual Manipulatives - is a site with a variety of different virtual manipulatives for kindergarten to high school.  The manipulatives are also divided into strands from number & operations to  Algebra to data analysis.  Unfortunately, you have to have the correct form of java for it to work so unless the device has the most current version, it might not work.  I have used it in the past but I haven't recently.