Mult-e-Maths: Primary Maths Toolbox CD-ROM
The CD-ROM for the Primary Maths Toolbox is presented in a DVD sized box with one CD enclosed and a basic leaflet offering a simple overview. How I wish they still provided books with these things, I know they are more expensive to produce, but I must be ‘old fashioned’ because I still like a book at hand to refer to. However, the manual on the CD is aptly named ‘PMT Help’! This did provide me with a chuckle thinking ‘oh! If only!’ being a female and all.
Once the programme has been loaded you are offered a selection of specialised toolboxes. It is important to remember to save your file before using it, because this provides a very useful option if you need to use the screen in your next session, or even later in the session. I could also see a use for this option being something I can go back to at a later date, even next term when we revisit the topic.
The specialist toolbox is made up of the following topic areas:
Fractions
Numbers
Calculations
Shape and Space
Coordinate and Background Grids
Measures
Probability
Handling Data
Solving Problems
These are accessed very easily (an icon is provided down the left side of the screen). It also means you can use tools from different areas on the same screen. I like this idea as it helps to reinforce how topics in mathematics are linked and connected to each other.
My first impression, looking at the specialist tools, was that this looks similar to many other toolboxes. However, when you start to use them there are some very good IT capabilities, which leave many of the ITPs provided by the strategy looking even more basic. Also, the toolboxes provided with some interactive boards look very simplistic compared with this one.
Fractions toolbox
How lovely to have a fraction wall, and the ability to write up any fraction clearly at the required font size. There are rectangles and circles to section and the ability to colour at will. There are cubes to play around with, and cherries or sweets to group and a function machine to look at equivalence. I like this toolbox very much. It is a versatile and useful collection of resources to emphasise and demonstrate your learning intention.
Numbers toolbox
I tried out several of these, the first was: Using a number line. The box provides a great choice of ranges, probably the sort of thing you would choose to draw on a white board. You are given options as to whether you would like the sections marked on the line e.g. a 0 to -5 line will come up with the range digits and a red arrow marked at the -3 position, you then decide if you want the other positions marked or not.
However, as soon as you type some words onto the screen, you lose the ability to mark the sections and have to click back onto the line or the arrow, directly, to be able to use these options again. Although this is not that much of a problem, it can take some getting used to when you first start. For me it was not instinctive, not logical, I wanted constant access.
Tools are offered down the right side of the screen to allow the use of a symbol pad, number pad and text. When you click onto these a pad comes up on the screen which is very helpful if you are using an interactive white board.
Other tools are available, but not all of them or all of the time. This is confusing at first. It offered me a highlighter but when you click onto the icon and try to use this on the screen it does not highlight what I want to highlight, which was the digits on the line. It only highlighted the text, symbol or number I had typed onto the screen myself. For example, if I wanted to highlight the -2 that sits on the number line, I cannot. However, I tried it on a new screen with a new number line and it worked. Hmmm! I could then move the digits on the screen, which I thought was useful, but no, there is a problem as you cannot return them to their place on the number line. Very confusing.
Probability toolbox
A coin, or many coins, can be presented onto the screen to toss. Great! Multiple coins can be flipped together. This could be a very useful tool. But why is it a ‘sixpence’? What was the thinking behind this? I fail to see how this might relate to children’s real world experiences. I am sure the writers have their reasons, but I do feel it was probably because they remember the sixpence fondly and want to preserve this icon. Have they considered how it might have been when they were at school and their teachers were using farthings in their lesson? If their thinking was the coins would date easily, then why not go for a roman coin or some ancient coin and be done with it. I am afraid the sixpence is too near the past for me to use with children - and what’s wrong with using the Euro?
The dice and the spinners are lovely. Just what a whole class session might need on the whiteboard. There are options on the spinner to colour sections and one to remove sections. I am not quite sure why you might need the last option, as when you remove the section line, I want the figures on the sections to change. I have not worked out how you might do this yet. The manual does not expand on this.
Shape and Space
Thank you writers, just what I’ve been looking for. This is an inspiration. Eat your heart out ‘smart board’ resources. You can show, very quickly how to reflect, rotate, translate all sorts of polygons around an axis. I just want to play all day.
Measures
Great collection of clock faces. This is an excellent tool to have in the classroom. You never seem to find just what you are looking for when you are teaching time. It’s a topic that can be very problematic for some children to grasp. I like this toolbox. It also has a calendar, a Newton, bathroom and kitchen scales. There is a ruler, but I have not decided what I will use that for just yet.
You can easily print, save, open and exit with one easy click at the top of the screen on the appropriate icon, and extra tool boxes/options appear in some of the areas as and when you start to use particular tools.
This toolbox provides a wide range of resources to be used on an interactive whiteboard. I think this CD provides a more useful set of tools than you will have seen on other boards in the primary classroom. They are primary friendly and not just lots of software resources placed in year groups to use when the NNS framework recommends. Unlike some board tools I have seen. Here is just a set of colourful helpful mathematical tools to use to enhance your demonstration, explanation or clarification of the concepts worked through with a whole class on your interactive whiteboard.
Yes please Cambridge University Press, I’ll have one for my classroom if you sort out the sixpence and the numberline tools for me.
Judy Sayers • Senior Lecturer in mathematics education, The University of Northampton
Mult-e-Maths: Primary Maths Toolbox CD-ROM
Series consultant – Anita Straker
Price: £475
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