3 Free Apps that You Can Use in Your Classroom Today: Math

Common Core State Standards: 
Use Appropriate Tools Strategically
Reason Abstractly
Model with Mathematics
Instructional Strategies: 
Visual Representations
Understanding Problems
Organizing

Apps and animations can be a great way to teach math, because you provide students with a visual representation of a concept that they can see, hear, and in some cases, touch and manipulate.

  • Pearl Diver HD (iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch) – Learn the number line while diving for pearls amidst shipwrecks and sunken ruins. Address NCTM standards including: understanding numbers, ways of representing numbers and number systems; understanding and representing commonly used fractions; understanding fractions as part of unit wholes and as locations on number lines; and comparing and ordering fractions.
  • Virtual Manipulatives! (iPad) – Virtual fraction bars and tiles.

Our last app this month is a cool graphing tool, that makes use of touch interface to help kids better understand linear relationships. 

  • Slope Slider by Shodor– increase student understanding of linear relationships by allowing students to manipulate graphs and lines to reflect changes in equations. F

Have you been using math apps in your lessons? Share your experiences in the comments! 

Acknowledgment: Special thanks to Rebecca Flynn for helping to prepare this blog post.

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