What is GMA?
With Graspable Math Activities, you can assign algebra tasks to your students and see live feedback of their step-by-step work. It is powered by Graspable Math, a digital algebra notation that provides a powerful and flexible way to work with algebra in the digital space.
In a time of powerful digital tools and online learning, most feel the easiest way to write and solve an equation is still by hand, on paper. We love paper, but shouldn't computers and touchscreens provide intuitive and fluid interfaces for math instead of getting in the way?
The answer is Graspable Math: algebra notation reconstructed for the digital space. Algebraic expressions turn into interactive objects and support students in flexible reasoning, exploring structure, and inquiring into how math works.
Getting Started
This video provides a quick walk-through of how to
select an activity,
create a session,
let students join, and
review student work in real time
To assign your first activity, log in to GMA, choose an existing activity – or create your own! You'll find a growing set of materials for grades 4 to 12.
Free Premium Account
Whether you are a teacher figuring out how to teach math to your class remotely, or a parent trying to support your children with their math schoolwork, you are probably right now looking for good tools to help you. We think GM Activities can be a valuable addition to your toolbelt – and we are providing it for free for the remainder of this school year. If you haven't already, head over to the account page to log in with Google and get a free premium account!
Graspable Math Algebra Notation
In a time of powerful digital tools and online learning, most feel the easiest way to write and solve an equation is still by hand, on paper. We love paper, but shouldn't computers and touchscreens provide intuitive and fluid interfaces for math instead of getting in the way?
Our answer is Graspable Math: algebra notation reconstructed for the digital space. Algebraic expressions turn into interactive objects and support students in flexible reasoning, exploring structure, and inquiring into how math works.
Graspable Math Gestures
As a teacher, play through Graspable Math Gesture Tutorials and assign it to your students. The “Independent Work for Students” on Featured Activities gently introduce the GM gestures, too.
Play through the teacher introduction activity in the Activity Bank and assign student introduction activities.
The Graspable Math YouTube Channel has how-to videos and tutorials
Classes and the Teacher Dashboard
Create Classes: create classes, upload your rosters, assign activities, and see student work organized in one place!
Activity Overview: The overview dashboard provides the ability to easily see students progress and correctness.
See Student Work in Real Time: As students work on the activities, you can see their work and progress live! You can toggle through to look at all of the students' work for a particular task or a particular student.
Activity task types
At the heart of GMA are different task types, and each task type is designed to address different skill sets and areas of algebra. When students work through each task, the app will provide them with immediate and detailed feedback.
Currently, the following Task Types are available.
Multimedia: a page of formatted text, images and videos that you can use to give instructions or information to students.
Goal State: students transform an expression into a given equivalent expression, building fluency and conceptual understanding around equivalency.
Canvas: digital scratch paper that students can draw on, add text to, and work on algebra expressions. Set up any initial content or import your saved files from the Graspable Math Canvas.
Line It Up: students are presented with a graph and need to pick a function family and adjust the parameters to match the graph.
Multiple Choice: great for retrieval practice and traditional assessment; you can use text, images and videos in the choices
Hot Spot: students move a marker to “spot” an error in an image (e.g., a previously-worked piece of algebra). Students will be able to work through the example in a GM Workspace and explain their reasoning