The Algebra Touch app gives students the opportunity to physically move numbers and variables around an iPad screen to better understand how to simplify algebraic expressions. Students who are trying to solve algebraic expressions on paper out of a textbook have a hard time seeing what needs to be done first and the steps to simplify. With this app, students get walked through the procedures and have visual aids to help them understand what is really going on mathematically.
In this lesson, students will learn how to solve different algebraic equations and simplify expressions with an emphasis on the distribution property. Students are already knowledgeable of how to simplify algebraic equations and expressions by addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Algebra Touch allows students to visualize the reason why the distributive property works. Teachers can explain the distributive property with some examples on the whiteboard, but once the students get the opportunity to manipulate the different parts of expressions themselves on the iPad, it will deepen their understanding.
Algebra Expressions and Equations Worksheet
(Video showing steps on how to distribute and factoring out using Algebra Touch)