For STUDENTS of any age using geoboards in their classrooms, Power Blocks offer geoboard readiness experiences. Nearly all the square, rectangular, parallelogram and trapezoidal shapes that can be represented with rubber bands on a geoboard can first be manipulated and explored concretely with Power Blocks. Any shape bounded by the nails of a geoboard can be made with Power Blocks, and once made, explored more easily and more thoroughly. Power Blocks compare to geoboards as beans and cups for teaching place value compare to number problems written on a page.

Generally, elementary school students have little or no experience offering mathematical proofs, and little practice with the logical thinking involved. The tangram lessons in Mathematics a Way of Thinking are designed to introduced the notion of direct and indirect proofs to children in the intermediate grades. Power Blocks extend the proving powers and logical thinking exercises of tangrams through all grades.

Students exploring Power Blocks learn fraction concepts naturally. Geometric and algebraic understand flow from the MATERIALS as well. Tiles for presenting number concepts in addition, subtraction, multiplication and division are a part of each set. And, of course, several sets of the tangrams that inspired the Power Blocks themselves are contained within each set.

Can I order Power Blocks?
The CENTER authored the books Mathematics Their Way and Mathematics a Way of Thinking to assist teachers in presenting mathematics to their students in ways that would facilitate UNDERSTANDING. The Center created Power Blocks with the same goal in mind. However, whereas the Center was able to find a publisher for its two books, it has not yet been able to find a company ready to manufacture and distribute Power Blocks.

The Power Blocks distributed in the past were part of the sets the Center had manufactured to test their effectiveness in the classroom. However, the Center is not a publisher and does not have the resources to manufacture and distribute Power Blocks on its own. When the Center finds a company to manufacture and distribute the Power Blocks we will let you KNOW. Until that time, though, additional sets of Power Blocks will not be available.