Books and websites about manipulatives in mathematics?

robertphy · Jun 27, 2023

Do you know about books and websites about manipulatives in mathematics teaching for secondary schools?
I think manipulatives are incredibly useful in teaching Mathematics.

Thank you for your support.

malawi_glenn · Jun 27, 2023

Never heard of that method

martinbn · Jun 27, 2023

What is a manipulative?

jtbell · Jun 27, 2023

Aha, I should have tried a Google search first. As soon as I typed in the word "manipulative", this was the very first hit:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manipulative_(mathematics_education)

Mark44 · Jun 27, 2023

I believe Cuisinaire rods (see https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000F8R5N2/?tag=pfamazon01-20) fall into the category of mathematics manipulatives. They're very useful IMO for teaching such arithmetic operations as multiplication and division and working with fractional amounts.

They're mostly used in the primary grades. I don't know of anything of this nature that is used in the higher grades.

pbuk · Jun 27, 2023

Mark44 said:

I believe Cuisinaire rods (see https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000F8R5N2/?tag=pfamazon01-20) fall into the category of mathematics manipulatives.

You beat me to it (although I was going to link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuisenaire_rods).

They (the original wooden version) certainly worked for me.

DrClaude · Jun 28, 2023

The Math Institute has material applying Montessori principles to secondary-level math:

https://www.themathinstitute.org/

gmax137 · Jun 28, 2023

I've never seen those rods before (elementary school in the 1960s). Though I do remember staring at a floor tiled with small square tiles, and "seeing why" the sum of the first n odd numbers is n^2.

mathwonk · Jun 30, 2023

And thanks to your mental picture, I see why it is also equivalent to the algebraic formula (n+1)^2 - n^2 = 2n+1, which also proves it by induction. cool.

Books and websites about manipulatives in mathematics?

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