MRO Manipulative Materials

The MRO also has numerous manipulative materials that are used for instruction in our mathematics education courses. We invite district curriculum teams to make arrangements to visit; special times may be arranged by calling (309) 298-2275. This room is provided for mathematics education students as well as pre-service and inservice elementary and secondary mathematics teachers in western Illinois. The Math Resource Office is a pleasant environment in which students can study or interact with mathematics education faculty.

Resources

• Blocks: attribute, base ten, centimeter, pattern, fraction, etc.
• Items for sorting: trading chips, clocks, color cubes, connecting cubes, counters, unifix cubes, polygons, Cuisenaire rods and cards, The Fraction Factory, fraction squares and circles, reflective items (mirrors & miras) and geoboards.
• Linking/Grouping: Links, Hexapuzzle, tangrams, color tiles, pentominoe puzzles, cards and colored plastic pieces. Two sets of Googoplex, the space building toy.
• Estimation: Probability supplies such as dice, spinners and chips.
• Measurement: Measuring materials include various types and several varieties of scales, volume and shape supplies.
• Calculation: Calculators, including Explorers, TI-15s, TI-73s, TI-82s and TI-92s are available for classroom use.
• Ellison Educational Die Press and dies for teachers and students to use for making their own sets of manipulatives. They can make polygons, tangrams, pentominoes, attribute pieces, fractions, squares, etc., to use in their classes.
• LEGO Dacta Technology building equipment. This equipment is being used in math education courses to help students learn about computers, spatial visualization, connection to science and to learn about functions, graphs and basic concepts of calculus.

Journals

• Journal for Research in Math Education, by National Council for Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM)
• Mathematics Teacher: Learning and Teaching PK-12 (NCTM)
• Mathematics Teacher, by NCTM
• The Arithmetic Teacher, by the NCTM
• Teaching in the Middle School by NCTM.
• Teaching Children Mathematics by NCTM.
• The Illinois Math Teacher, by Illinois Council of Teachers of Mathematics (ICTM)
• AIMS, published by the AIMS Education Foundation
• Logo Exchange, The Magazine for LOGO Activities Worldwide
• Teaching Pre K-8, The Professional Magazine for Teachers
• School Science and Mathematics

Books

The MRO contains professional resource materials as well as a collection of mathematics textbooks for K-12. Students may browse through the new book sets from Houghton Mifflin, Macmillan, Prentice Hill, Everyday Mathematics and others.

The new NCTM Standards books are available here in the MRO, along with many other books and learning materials.

Videos and DVDs

We have numerous video tapes and DVDs related to mathematics teaching, and a television and VCR available for playing them. Video topics include activities with manipulatives (pattern blocks, geoboards, etc.), calculator and computer activities, and assessment.

Computers

Computers are very much a part of the curriculum of mathematics education courses. The math labs in 216 and 211b Morgan Hall are for mathematics students only. They are utilized for teaching mathematics courses with Maple and the use of technology for mathematics education courses. There is also one scanner, one fileserver and one laser printer. These computers are used for teaching courses using Maple, Logo, Geometry Inventor, Geometers Sketchpad, and instructional CD Rom development. Many other types of software are available for K-12 mathematics.