Technology Tools and Online Resources for Education

The simulations and data visualizations in this library are used as part of the OpenSciEd units.

In this collection, you will find easy-to-understand simulations of common scientific phenomena, such as why a balloon sticks to a sweater, and how water forms a rounded surface.

Collected interactive simulations for science and mathematics.

This is great software for creating diagrams and interactive applets. It is particularly useful in helping students see the connection between geometry and algebra. You can create files for students to engage with during a lesson or you can use the program to create accurate diagrams and images for your lesson materials. This is a free software! You can download it to your computer, tablet or phone. It does take some time to gain fluency with the functionality of the software, so you should allocate time for yourself for learning it.

This is another software option for mathematical visualization. You can use it to create geometric figures, graphs of complex functions, and interactive applets. You can create files for students to engage with during a lesson or you can use the program to create accurate diagrams and images for your lesson materials. This software comes with a licensing fee. There are different pricing structures which correspond to the number of computers to which your school will need to download the software.

These can be used to support students' concrete, pictorial, and visual understanding of content. Instead of using physical manipulatives, these provide online visuals, like algebra tiles, equation balances, and counting chips. The "interactives" section of this site has lesson ideas using virtual tools.

Applets are mini-applications that perform a single task. They are especially useful for showing geometric properties as students can explore several cases through the applet.This website has several applets organized by category. Search by different topics to explore the different applets. Note that you'll have to click into specific topics to get to the applets.

These can be used to support students' concrete, pictorial, and visual nderstanding of content. Instead of using physical manipulatives, these provide online visuals, like algebra tiles, equation balances, and counting chips. Here you can find manipulatives by topic or grade level.

This website provides interactive models of various K-12 math problems using Sketchpad. Puzzles and simulations cover elementary mathematics, geometry and geometric functions, advanced mathematics, and conic sections.

Applets are mini-applications that perform a single task. They are especially useful for showing geometric properties as students can explore several cases through the applet. Dr. Ted Coe has created several applets for various math topics. While many are intended for high school content, check out some of the algebra and geometry applets for middle school as well.

These should be used to help students with large computations (e.g., computing an average of several numbers) after conceptual
understanding is in place (e.g., students understand that finding the mean is about equal sharing). There are so many different types (e.g., basic, scientific, and graphing) and brands (e.g., Casio, and Texas Instruments) of calculators. Your school may already have class sets of certain calculators. Take time to review the functionality of whatever calculators your students use so you can support students in the effective use of the calculator

A collection of classic calculators that are fully functional and can be used in the browser. Notably includes the TI-83 and other graphing calculators. Note, after you load a calculator and activate it you will still need to push the "on" button on the calculator itself, just like the real thing!

Another graphing application. Note that you can access an online scientific, matrix, and
statistics calculator here as well.

Desmos is a graphing app. Check out their blog to see some really cool ways people use Desmos!

A graphing application and tool for solving equations. There is a phone app for this tool. Note that while this app gives you a solution to equations, seeing the steps used to solve the equation requires an upgrade.

This is an incredibly powerful and helpful website! You can enter in any equation and get numeric and graphical solutions. You do need to have specific mathematical syntax to make sure the program can read your equation correctly. You can also just type in the equation and the program can translate that to an equation and provide a solution.

Another application for solving equations. This is also available as a phone app. The non-cluttered layout of the page makes it a fairly easy app to use. You can get step-by-step solutions for free. You should note that the steps the app takes may not align to the way you or your students would solve the equation. This is okay, as it can foster great discussions about multiple methods for a single problem!