Flabido

From the Center for Algebraic Thinking and Shodor, Flabido consists of three engaging activities that help build understanding of how to read and interpret graphs. Animated flasks, bicycles and doodles keep the learning fun and challenging.

Flask:
This is a game. You are presented with an odd-shaped flask, and three graphs purporting to show how the height of the water in the flask would vary with time if the flask is filled at a constant rate. (The picture shows the front view of a flask with circular cross-section.) You get 10 points for identifying the correct graph, and a penalty for wrong guesses. Only the best players earn enough points to become a Flask Jedi.

Bicycle:
You are a bicyclist about to embark on a journey across some interesting terrain. Your job is to predict your speed, elevation and total distance traveled during the course of your trip. After you have drawn your predictions, take the journey and see how well your predictions matched the actual journey!

Doodle Pad:
This is actually three activities on one! In the "home" mode, you simply draw a doodle, and the x- and y-components of your doodle are plotted as functions of arc length. So a circle becomes a sine curve and a cosine curve! There are also two game modes. In the first you are given a doodle, and your job is to draw the x- and y-graphs. In the second, you are given the graphs, and must reconstruct the doodle.

All of these activities were designed with a teacher-student interaction in mind, and are excellent for use in the classroom!