Algebra Tiles

Algebra Tiles are a new way of teaching algebra to students who are just beginning to learn the basic concepts.

This instructable will show you how to use an Epilog laser cutter to make a set of the useful tiles. If you do not have a laser cutter, you can use Ponoko or similar laser cutting services to make yours.

Step 1: Supplies

The supply list for this project is:

Sheets of Acrylic (32 dollars for a 24x34 inch piece from Tap Plastics)
A Laser Cutter
The template that is attached

I included 2 templates, one for 1 set and one for a set of 39. They can be edited in corel draw or a similar program.

Comments

[mtrabzon]

thanks. emlak

[frollard]

I agree these are a great tool to teach/learn algebra -- I hated them :) -- I was a very paper math person, so I could just visualize the problems and the plastic bits just confused me. Lots of my classmates raved about them. Knowing they are an educational product, the teacher warned us not to lose any because each set was ridiculously expensive (in the $50/student range for a small box of pieces.) Perhaps it would be cool to include just the dimensions of the pieces for those of us who are condemned to using a lowly 'saw' to cut pieces :D

[hintss]

I was a very brain math person. The paper only had question numbers and answers.

[joosh]

Talking of ridiculously expensive stuff in my chemistry class we used some sticks and round balls with holes to demonstrate the bonding angles of atoms and my teacher said they were like $200 a box. I think we got most of them from college students who didn't need them anymore though. But back on topic I've never used these and glad I didn't. I would probably get confused also. I like pen, paper, and plenty of sleep in my math classes. I've seen these in math books before though and they were intriguing, but I have never had a problem understanding math. Maybe that is because my teacher is amazing though.

[hintss]

someone made 3d printable versions on thingiverse

[NachoMahma]

> the dimensions of the pieces
.  Just pick a number. The 1 piece is that many pick-your-unit-of-measure on each side. The x piece is that many pick-your-unit-of-measure on one side and twice that many pick-your-unit-of-measure on the other side. X² is twice that many pick-your-unit-of-measure on each side.

[frollard]

the x piece is 'unit x about 2.5*unit' -- not just twice as long. Otherwise, it can be easy to confuse and say x = 1+1 etc.

[jtong77]

Isn't x=.125 similarly confusing for the observant student? Maybe different colors can be used for variables and constants. Very nicely made.

[NachoMahma]

. So it actually takes ALL the pieces to make X² (not just the piece labeled X²)?

[frollard]

it means you can have something like x^2 + 2x + 1 makes a perfect square...x2 is the larger square. All I was saying is the x pieces are not just a 2:1 rectangle, or it would be easy to say 2x = x^2 = 1+1+1+1

[NachoMahma]

. Oops! I guess I should have paid more attention to Step 4. Thanks for splainin' it to me.

[muratsay]

Thank you emlak

[feedayeen]

Use different shapes and colors. If I where a student looking at this I would think that since the X is twice the size of 1, X = 2, and since X ^ 2 is equal to four 1's, X^2 is 4. If you are teaching math, make sure that your students understand that these props just represent abstract ideas. If you don't, students will assign imaginary significant to objects and this will harm them later on.