The integer abacus: to help students in understanding of negative numbers and operations

Authors

  • Erickson Gomes Imperador da Silva Faculdades Atibaia - FAAT
  • Keli Cristina Conti Faculdades Atibaia - FAAT

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5007/1981-1322.2016v11n1p74

Abstract

In order to assist students in understanding the negative numbers and their operations, this article reports the experience developed with 38 students of the 7th year of elementary school at a public school in the state of São Paulo, using the "abacus of integers". We seek to detail the accomplished route, which was divided into four stages: the construction of the abacus, learning of its handling and the completion of the addition subtraction and multiplication operations. Experience indicated that students could understand the meaning of negative numbers in visual situations, providing contact with content that is considered more traditional (whole numbers and signs rules) in a more pleasant way. Also they could be perceived evidence that students understand the rules of calculation with integers by observing the regularities, being able to perform more significantly the operations.

Author Biography

Keli Cristina Conti, Faculdades Atibaia - FAAT

Licenciatura Plena em Matemática pelas Faculdades Integradas de Amparo (1999), Normal Superior pelo Centro Universitário Hermínio Ometto (2004), Licenciatura em Pedagogia pelo centro Universitário de Araras (2011), especialização em Matemática para Professores da Quinta a Oitava Séries do Ensino Fundamental pelo Imecc/Unicamp (2006), Mestrado em Educação, com linha de pesquisa em Educação Matemática pela Faculdade de Educação da Unicamp (2009),Doutorado em Educação, com linha de pesquisa em Ensino e Práticas Culturais pela Faculdade de Educação da Unicamp (2015).

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Published

2016-07-07

Issue

Vol. 11 No. 1 (2016)

Section

Artigos

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