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 a certain number of nails half driven in, 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.

Geoboards were invented and popularized by Egyptian mathematician Caleb Gattegno in the 1950s.

[edit] External links

• Various geoboard activities
• Virtual geoboard on the NCTM web site in the United States
• Tom Scavo's collection of geoboard activities
• Educational manipulatives & supplemental materials for grades PreK-12.