Using scales to balance equations
In Making Math Meaningful, Marion
Small suggests this manipulative to show students the importance of always balancing
equations. When you take away blocks on one side of the scale, you must add
those blocks to the other side to maintain the same weight distribution.
These manipulatives should be used as part of the Patterning and Algebra
strand of the curriculum. Because the clear visuals depicted through the
manipulatives, a teacher could conceivably use this to demonstrate balancing
equations as early as grade 4 or 5. The scales should be a demonstration or activity
after having already explained the basic concepts of linear algebra, and then
used as a supplement to the knowledge.
The students in my placement class have already finished their
Patterning and Algebra unit, so I won’t be using this in the classroom right
away, but I would like to try it out in future classrooms because I think it is
a way to really help students visualize what’s happening when they move numbers
around in equations.
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