Great way to help student visually understand
Submitted 9 years ago
Community Review for National Library of Virtual Manipulatives
Kirsten T.
Fox Ridge Middle School
Aurora CO, US
My Take
My overall opinion of this product is that is a very useful teaching tool. I like that I can access this resource when I find a student is not understanding a certain concept and I can show them visually to help them understand. The only difficulty I found with this site is that it can be difficult to locate specific visuals.
How I Use It
I use this site to help students understand a math problem visually. When you see that a class, group or individual students are not understanding a concept, seeing the concept visually can make all the difference in the world.
More community reviews for National Library of Virtual Manipulatives
Kate C.
May 27, 2020
Website no longer Chrome-compatible; link to App is dead.
I couldn't find a "contact us" form for CommonSense.org - writing this review is my way of giving you a heads up about this dead tool for the National Library of Virtual Manipulatives. While I know that the "updated" link on this learning resource listing is 2013, the phase-out of Chome/Java compatibility happened shortly thereafter (they stopped offering it in the Chrome store around 2014 or 2015). It would help if materials on the CommonSense database looked fresh; it may help to have staff review any Website that still requires Java. Sadly, in Dec. 2020, sites requiring Adobe Flash will begin to face the same problem. Screening for these major browser incompatibilities - not small ones, but these really really big ones - could eliminate a lot of frustration.
Note - the National Library of Virtual Manipulatives website tries to link to an "App" version that can be downloaded, and doesn't therefore require Java. However, that entire site - MattiMath.com - is no longer working, and I can find few references on the web after 2018.
Continue reading
Lora P.
Altizer Elementary School
Huntington, WV
June 18, 2014
This is the best free site you'll find for keeping students engaged and learning math!
I feel that this is a wonderful teaching tool but I do wish that clearer instructions were given in the section using addition and subtraction with numbers up to four digits.
Continue reading
Susan W.
Mc Keesport, PA
March 4, 2014
So many tools on this site that help integrate classroom lessons and engage students for independent learning.
This is one of my "GOTO" sites for my Pre Algebra and Algebra classes. Once I have done whole class instruction using the book. I them move onto in class manipulatives. There are still some students that can not grasp the concept. NLVM is my next step. The Algebra Balance Scales and Algebra Tiles seems to be able to help those last students that still need some additional instruction.
Continue reading