Classroom tools

Yoshiki Ohshima yoshiki at vpri.org
Sat Jan 19 11:42:44 EST 2008


At Tue, 15 Jan 2008 14:11:40 -0800,
Edward Cherlin wrote:
> At the schoolroom level, the difference is between knowing rules for
> manipulating variables, and understanding what a variable is.
> (Basically, a variable name is a pronoun that can refer to a different
> number each time it is used.) Caleb Gattegno was particularly good at
> inducing understanding of arithmetic and elementary algebra using
> Cuisenaire rods. Everybody involved in XO software and content should
> read his work. In fact, a Cuisenaire rod activity would be brilliant.

  Yes.  In fact, the idea of making the numbers viewable as rods and
making them addable in Etoys has been popping on and off quite while.
Scott Wallace even has an experimental implementation.

-- Yoshiki



More information about the Devel mailing list