Geoboard
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A geoboard is a mathematical manipulative often used to explore basic concepts in plane geometry such as perimeter, area or the characteristics of triangles and other polygons. Consisting of a physical board with twenty-five raised pegs in a symmetrical square five-by-five array, students are encouraged to place rubber bands around the pegs to model various geometric concepts or to solve other mathematical puzzles. Two-dimensional represenations of the geoboard may be applied to ordinary paper using rubber stamps or special "geoboard paper" with diagrams of geoboards may be used to help capture a student's explanations of the concept they have discovered or illustrated on the geoboard.
Invented and popularized by Egyptian mathematician Caleb Gattegno in the 1950's, and was popularized by The Cuissinaire Company, which he founded with Georges Cuisenaire.