Math Teaching Tool - "Quadratic Super Modeler"

[CalfordMath]

The file is too large to poster here (just over 3MB due to some basic sound effects and images likely), so here's link where you can download it from tinyupload.com: http://s000.tinyupload.com/?file_id=...64105700724070

This is a vb.net desktop application (4.0 framework targeted). Nothing special is required to run it! The .exe file is attached. You will likely get anti-virus warnings (as you should with an .exe file!) but I assure you there is nothing malicious about this software!

I'm a full time high school math teacher, so most of my coding is geared toward making learning/teaching tools.

I created this out of need! The need for better virtual algebra tiles! (Click here if you don't know what algebra tiles are) Students find the physical tiles cumbersome to manipulate, and most of the virtual tiles I've found for interactive whiteboards overlap and do not align perfectly to which frustrates many students!

This is more than a virtual algebra tile modeller... it includes step by step instructions, guiding students to the standard, factored, or vertex form! It recognizes when the tiles have been factored (built into a rectangle) or the square has been competed. More than this, it dynamically knows the answer giving either a green checkmark, a red x, or a yellow "half way checkmark" if their answer is not formatted quite right.

There is an option to "Just play with the tiles" if you don't wish to be restricted to quadratic expressions. You can add tiles to the panel and it will give the algebraic polynomial tally up top (and even tell you if your tiles are factorable or not).

You can use this on an interactive whiteboard as a teaching tool, or throw the file in a network drive for students to use individually in a computer lab. You can use this software any time you would have used physical algebra tiles in the past.

Basically, from this forum, I'd like to know how the program runs and feels on your computer. If any of you are math lovers (or better yet, math educators!) I'd love to know if this program helped you understand algebraic concepts in a deeper way! Were there any features you'd like to see added? Any that didn't work? Any bugs? UI suggestions (I know there may be many!) Thanks,

~CalfordMath