{"id":445,"date":"2019-01-02T18:48:54","date_gmt":"2019-01-02T18:48:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/theaccessibletoolbox\/?page_id=445"},"modified":"2019-01-15T17:48:58","modified_gmt":"2019-01-15T17:48:58","slug":"manipulatives","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/theaccessibletoolbox\/materials\/manipulatives\/","title":{"rendered":"Manipulatives"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Manipulatives are objects that a learner can feel and manipulate in order to better understand a concept.\u00a0 They are excellent tools for learners who benefit from active, hands-on instruction and they are invaluable for learners who are blind or have a visual impairment when verbal instructions alone are not adequate to teach a concept.\u00a0 Blind and visually impaired learners must, \u201cexperience relationships with real objects in order to prepare them for understanding the same relationships with numbers\u201d (Osterhaus, 2011).\u00a0 Consequently, manipulatives are great teaching tools for statistics!<\/p>\n<\/header>\n

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Here are some manipulatives we recommend and instructions on how to use them.\u00a0\u00a0Be sure to check out the\u00a03D Toolkit<\/a><\/span>\u00a0to learn more about how you can get these and other helpful teaching tools for FREE!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sticky back foam sheets & Braille graphing paper<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n

Cut sticky back foam sheets into squares that fit into the cells of Braille graphing paper to make tactile distributions.\u00a0 Learners who are blind or visually impaired can feel distributions the instructor has made or make their own.\u00a0 When sharing pre-assembled distributions, start by orienting the learner to the\u00a0x<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0y<\/em>\u00a0axis and then give them time to feel the shape and scope of the distribution before giving further instructions.\u00a0 Putting Braille numbers on the\u00a0x<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0y<\/em>\u00a0axis isn\u2019t necessary if each row and column has a value of 1 but may be helpful if the values are larger.\u00a0 These manipulatives are best for small data sets so the learner can feel the entire distribution more easily.<\/p>\n

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Hardboard distributions & Wikki Stix<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n

With the help of the\u00a0Makerspace<\/a><\/span>\u00a0staff at\u00a0Mount Holyoke College<\/a><\/span>, we created three hardboard distributions: one positively skewed, one negatively skewed and one symmetrical.\u00a0 We also included lines etched into each distribution to indicate the relative position of the mean, median and mode.\u00a0 The hardboard distributions allow learners who are blind or visually impaired to feel the different shapes of the curves and, with the help of the etched lines, learn where the mean, median and mode fall on each curve.<\/p>\n

Wikki Stix are made of yarn covered with non-toxic wax and stick to any smooth surface when you gently press them down.\u00a0 They can be placed and replaced easily without leaving a mark.\u00a0 Using Wikki Stix, instructors can mark a specific value (e.g., a\u00a0z<\/em>\u00a0score) on a distribution.\u00a0 On the symmetrical distribution below, the Wikki Stix marks a value between the mean and +1 standard deviation from the mean.<\/p>\n

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Above is a positively skewed distribution where the mean is indicated by the solid line, the median by the line with long dashes and the mode by the line with short dashes.<\/p>\n

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References<\/strong><\/p>\n

Osterhaus, S. A. (2011, March).\u00a0The use of manipulatives as an instructional strategy to help students who are blind or visually impaired understand and learn math concepts (early childhood through secondary)<\/em>. Presentation given on behalf of the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Manipulatives are objects that a learner can feel and manipulate in order to better understand a concept.\u00a0 They are excellent tools for learners who benefit from active, hands-on instruction and they are invaluable for learners who are blind or have a visual impairment when verbal instructions alone are not adequate to teach a concept.\u00a0 Blind … Continue reading Manipulatives<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":893,"featured_media":0,"parent":88,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-445","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/theaccessibletoolbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/theaccessibletoolbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/theaccessibletoolbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/theaccessibletoolbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/893"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/theaccessibletoolbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=445"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/theaccessibletoolbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/445\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":565,"href":"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/theaccessibletoolbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/445\/revisions\/565"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/theaccessibletoolbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/88"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/theaccessibletoolbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}