Linking Cube Research Paper

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Selecting Developmentally Appropriate Materials: Linking Cubes

Describe the Material
The educational material that I chose is Linking Cubes. Their main use is for math instruction, and are meant for age’s preschool through sixth grade. They can be used to teach a multitude of lessons such as, addition, subtraction, multiplication, graphing, patterns, etc. I think they are great because you can use them in so many different educational ways. I personally, was planning on using them in an elementary school setting, for addition, subtraction and patterns. For one set of 150 linking cubes, consisting of ten different colors, you can purchase them for about $20. They are often compared to Cuisenaire rods, and there is debate on which is better. I feel it really depends on what you are teaching. Linking cubes may be more useful for place values, and c-rods for group number work. I like the fact that they are a hands on tools, that can be cleaned easily, and make whatever the lesson you are using them for fun and interactive. Description of Two Developmental Domains Linking cubes target several areas of development in children. The two main developmental areas that are affected when students use Linking Cubes are perceptual-motor development and cognitive development. Perception refers to the process of taking in, organizing, and interpreting sensory information, it is multiple sensory. Motor development is the progression of a child, in controlling their body movements. Students learn perceptual-motor skills when incorporating linking cubes into a lesson. Hand eye coordination must be used to link them together. Many children enjoy learning kinesthetically, as do I, which is one of the reasons I chose these. Also, with the different colors, you can practice making patterns. Students are using their hands, minds and linguistic skills as they work on a lesson. They also have a dual functionality as Cuisenaire rods, by linking a certain number of the same color blocks, to make a rod. Many children would enjoy using them in their free play time, they can be stacked and used the same as Lego’s. Cognitive development flourishes when using Linking cubes. Cognitive development is the making of thought processes, including remembering, problem solving, and decision-making. Using the linking cubes for math problems, whether it be addition, subtraction, or multiplication, is using the students problem solving and decision-making skills. Once they start to practice, eventually they will begin to remember, and have this knowledge for future lessons. This would reflect Piaget’s concrete operational stage of cognitive development. This stage is characterized by seven types of conservation (number, length, liquid, mass, area, weight and volume). A child’s intelligence is exhibited through logical and systematic manipulation of symbols related to concrete objects. With the linking cubes, this is exactly what we are doing. Review of First Article In regards to the first study I looked at, it involved the cognitive development of elementary learners, and was conducted on students of two schools, in the same city of Bhubaneswar, New Delhi. Both schools were co-educational, and included 112 students from various backgrounds. The purpose of the study was designed to investigate the effectiveness of a new, innovative and flexible approach of teaching-learning. Multi-dimensional activity based integrated approach, for the development of the cognitive abilities in social studies of sixth grade students. The study was based on following three hypotheses:
…show more content…
For this study, a total of 98 children, both boys and girls ages 4 to 10 participated. All these children were right-handed. The task involved the children having to visually track a moving object, which was controlled by turning the wheels of a control device that was connected to a laptop, with their left hand. Manual dexterity is known to gradually progress with developmental age. This study, evaluated the performance of unimanual and bimanual actions in the children. The results concluded that younger children performed less successfully than the older children in the both tasks, with a plateau around the age of 8 years. Overall, the data highlighted a progressive change and integration of control systems due to developmental age with behavioral performance being guided by the existing constraints. Although this study does not have a direct correlation to the linking blocks, it does touch on the use of manual coordination, and its

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