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Teaching math visually- help me out here!


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Several years ago I used to teach in a school that used a visual math program on the computer. It's called ST Math and is developed (ongoing, they keep updating, adding things, and improving it) by the MIND Research Institute. Ever since my oldest kid was a toddler, I've been bugging MIND (a non-profit group) to offer their programs to home schoolers or just general consumers. I'm guessing the only reason they haven't is money- although they're non-profit, I think they employ a ton of people to develop this stuff, so it ends up being pretty pricey for the schools that use it.

 

And I'm wondering if maybe they just haven't heard a ton of home schoolers demanding it, so I thought I'd share it here. Have a look, if you think it would be useful for you, please write to them and ask them to make it available outside public schools!

 

Here's a TEDx talk by one of the co-founders:

 

And here's a video from their website that explains how some of it works- go to the end and you can try a few sample problems: http://www.mindresearch.net/cont/programs/demo/tours/SolvingLinearEquations/progTour.php

 

 

 

Personally, I'm not a totally visual learner. Visuals help, but I can also learn by listening. There's just something about visual math, though... I never really got adding fractions until I played their JiJi Cycle game, which shows visually how to estimate adding fractions. Sure, I could do the steps to solve the problem, but if I made a mistake and got an answer that was way off I wouldn't see right away that it didn't make sense. Now I can just look at the fractions and have a good idea of about how much the answer should be. The way they show algebra concepts looks very promising too, although I didn't see much of that as the school where I taught was an elementary school. I reeeally want my kids to have a chance to learn with this program. :thumbup:

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