Week 5 - Virtual Manipulative - How High?

Name of Virtual Manipulative: How High?
Category: Geometry
Grade Level: 6 - 8 (probably best for grade 8)
Link: How High? Virtual Manipulative

This virtual manipulative is great because it forces students to try to understand spatial relationships. The truly analytical student will figure out very quickly that it is necessary to calculate the volumes of both figures and then compare them. By no means is this an easy activity. The beauty of this program is that the learning curve for an eighth grader would be very steep. At first, they will likely start out making wild guesses. Then, they will make more educated guesses. Finally, they should come to the realization that if they calculate the volume of the liquid and compare it to the volume of the container on the right they should be able to accurately predict how high the liquid will go when poured into the container on the right. Thus, this activity forces students to also study the volume of figures.

The really nice thing about this virtual manipulative is that it is applicable to the real world. It is very common for people to transfer a liquid from one container to another in order to save space in a refrigerator or cupboard. Thus, students will likely see "the point" of doing this activity.

I had my girlfriend do this virtual manipulative. She started out making wild guesses. Then, she graduated to educated guesses, and finally, she began calculating volumes and comparing them. Thus, it is no surprise that, at first, she thought the activity was very difficult. However, by the end, she had changed her opinion because she had developed a mathematical strategy for determining the answers.