Dynamic Mathematical Charts for Elementary and Middle School Students

Description

Chartworld is an integrated educational tool for children to explore and learn mathematics. The instructional programs make Chartworld easy enough for a seven year old to begin use in less than a minute, and complex enough to provide intense mathematical challenges for middle school students. There are also instructional materials to help teachers use the software to teach mathematics to elementary and middle school children. Chartworld was written in Boxer, a complete programming language developed by Andrea A. diSessa and Edward Lay. .

Advantages

• Product is easy to use, which encourages more exploration by students
• Patterns in number charts resemble the hundreds of charts already used in schools.
• Effectively provides materials to help children learn centrally important topics in the elementary school mathematics curriculum.
• Gives the power of programming directly to children

Chartworld Examples

A third grader created the picture on the left in less than a minute. It shows the multiples of 2, 3, 4, and 6. In each case, these multiples form vertical columns, a pattern that the children call stripes. From this, the student concluded that 2, 3, 4, and 6 are factors of 12.

The picture on the right is the result of a single keystroke that increased the number of columns to 13. In this case, the numbers form a diagonal pattern. This means that 2, 3, 4, and 6 are not factors of 13.

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Inventor
Dr. Don Ploger
College of Education

IP Status
Two issued Copyrights

Contact Information
Office of Technology Transfer
777 Glades Road, ADM 218
Boca Raton, FL 33431-0991

Kurt R. Moore
Assistant V.P. & Director
Ph: 561-297-1165
Fax: 561-297-2141
kmoore34@fau.edu

Michelle Webb
Assistant Director
Ph: 561-297-0673
Fax: 561-297-2141
mwebb18@fau.edu

Case Number
2000-09