I attended Howie Hua’s #VirtualMath21 (you can search the hashtag on Twitter but Howie seems to have disabled his Twitter account). I really enjoy a good free conference and this one didn’t disappoint. I have a few things churning in my mind, but one I wanted to share immediately was Graspable Math shared by Tim Brzezinski and Susan Carriker.
Graspable Math allows students to interact with equations and expressions, showing each step of the process. It’s FREE for K-12 teachers. To get a full understanding of what all you can do with Graspable Math, watch the tutorial videos (screenshot below) and Tim’s video.
I can think of so many ways to use this in the classroom beyond just having students solve problems. For example, when you are solving the equation 2x+4=8, you can show the subtraction of 4 from both sides OR you can drag the +4 across the equal sign to the 8. What a wonderful conversation to have about why they both work. You can use the reflection prompt feature in Graspable Math to have students explain what they notice. If you are not using the dashboard, you could also have them explain in a PearDeck or other anonymous platform.
You can set up Open Middle problems with place holders and students can drag in the numbers to make the equation work. I’m ok with this to check for open middle, but I like to see students working out the problems when we work with open middle.
You can set up graphs that students have to match. Yes, you can do this in Desmos too but I like that you can have it turn green when they get it correct or not if you want to use it as an assessment (which you can now do in Desmos also, it’s just slightly more difficult).
There is a multiple choice or check all that apply feature if you are using it as an assessment and you can also embed video if you are using this for instructional purposes.
Graspable Math also has a teacher dashboard. Since I haven’t used this with students yet, I don’t have my own example to show you but here is a tweet from Graspable Math. Tim also shows you the student view in his video.
The Geogebra tools are also in Graspable Math. I’m excited to play around with it and see if I can get students to solve in Geometry using Graspable Math features. (This is not in the activities area with the dashboard). You can get to this canvas by typing math.new in a browser window or click the explore Algebra button from graspablemath.com.
Tim’s video is about an hour, but well worth the watch. Hopefully Graspable Math is something you can use in your classroom too.
Make Math Not Suck 