Having taught math to young kids, I used cubes at the beginning to give a real feel to the numbers. Having tangible items to play with gave them a real world demonstration of how numbers work.
And when the kids grasped the physical manipulation, I would transition to paper exercises like you are looking at. And I would call those squares “cubes.” because doing so linked the physical with the abstract. And for some students, to suddenly switch terms could be confusing at first.
Teaching is about linking back to things the student already knows and is comfortable with.
6-12 are in Piagets “concrete operational” stage. They need manipulatives, things they can touch. Like you can do algebra with them - you just need to show them the explicit comparison with a scale and even ideally have them physically manipulate a scale to solve for x.
Even a lot of teens/I suspect many adults aren’t able to operate fully in “formal operations” mode.
What makes me homicidal is that the companies that make those cubes don’t make them a centimeter cubed. I want the kids to fucking measure them with rulers and be able to make that connection!
Having taught math to young kids, I used cubes at the beginning to give a real feel to the numbers. Having tangible items to play with gave them a real world demonstration of how numbers work.
And when the kids grasped the physical manipulation, I would transition to paper exercises like you are looking at. And I would call those squares “cubes.” because doing so linked the physical with the abstract. And for some students, to suddenly switch terms could be confusing at first.
Teaching is about linking back to things the student already knows and is comfortable with.
That’s how I learned algebra and it really really helped having a physical x and cubes or numbers on either side.
6-12 are in Piagets “concrete operational” stage. They need manipulatives, things they can touch. Like you can do algebra with them - you just need to show them the explicit comparison with a scale and even ideally have them physically manipulate a scale to solve for x.
Even a lot of teens/I suspect many adults aren’t able to operate fully in “formal operations” mode.
Maybe this assignment was meant to be done with those same cubes. Like physically placing them in the boxes.
What makes me homicidal is that the companies that make those cubes don’t make them a centimeter cubed. I want the kids to fucking measure them with rulers and be able to make that connection!