Through previous grant awards from IES, researchers developed Graspable Math, a tablet-based intervention where middle and high school students create and manipulate complex expressions for basic operations as well as equations and equations systems and inequalities. In this project, the team will develop a prototype of Graspable Math Activities, an app with novel kinds of algebra practice and assessment tasks. The app will support students in becoming fluent and flexible users of algebra and will provide teachers with formative assessment reports about their students' performance. The algebra activities will promote procedural fluency while allowing students to focus on strategy and the connection between concepts and procedures. At the end of Phase I, in a pilot study with three high school classrooms, the researchers will examine whether the prototype functions as planned, whether teachers believe that the full product concept could be implemented, and if the prototype shows promise for improving student mathematics outcomes.
