Digital manipulatives: new toys to think with
Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Extending tangible interfaces for education: digital montessori-inspired manipulatives
Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
ICLS '06 Proceedings of the 7th international conference on Learning sciences
roBlocks: a robotic construction kit for mathematics and science education
Proceedings of the 8th international conference on Multimodal interfaces
Smart Blocks: a tangible mathematical manipulative
Proceedings of the 1st international conference on Tangible and embedded interaction
Creating mathematical artifacts: extending children's engagement with math beyond the classroom
IDC '08 Proceedings of the 7th international conference on Interaction design and children
Tangibles in the balance: a discovery learning task with physical or graphical materials
Proceedings of the fourth international conference on Tangible, embedded, and embodied interaction
The BEAM: a digitally enhanced balance beam for mathematics education
Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children
Quadratic: manipulating algebraic expressions on an interactive tabletop
Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children
Proportion: a tablet app for collaborative learning
Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children
Proportion: learning proportional reasoning together
EC-TEL'12 Proceedings of the 7th European conference on Technology Enhanced Learning
Supporting lifelong learners to build personal learning ecologies in daily physical spaces
International Journal of Mobile Learning and Organisation
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In this paper we describe the design and implementation of a tangible balance beam that we created for early algebra education. We also present data from an exploratory study with seven children (ages 9--10 years) in a local elementary summer school classroom. Our results provide insight into how students solve algebra problems using our tangible interface, how they coordinate multiple representations (both digital and physical) in the problem solving process, and how they understand the concept of algebraic equality in this context. The data suggests that our interface helps students think about equations in a relational context, which has been shown to be an important skill for understanding more advanced concepts in algebra. Whether or not the combination of physical and digital representations provided by our interface helps students apply this relational understanding to equations written using standard algebraic notation is an open question that we hope to investigate in future work.