Arithmetic Teaching Apparatus -- Blocks and Bars
Blocks and Bars
In the early twentieth century, the Italian educator Maria Montessori introduced a variety of apparatus for introducing young children to ideas about numbers and arithmetic. In the mid-twentieth century, the German-born American teacher Catherine Stern and the Belgian educator Georges Cuisenaire developed systems of teaching about numbers and arithmetic with wooden blocks.
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Look and See! Touch and Feel! Training the Senses of Children from Six to Fourteen Years of Age with New Play Materials
- Description
- Documentation received with Catherine Stern's apparatus for teaching arithmetic suggests how her ideas changed over time. This publication from about 1939 describes apparatus aimed at generally training the senses rather than teaching about numbers and arithmetic.
- For Stern's later apparatus, see 2005.0229.01 and 2005.0229.02. Other documentation is part of transaction 2005.3100.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1939
- ID Number
- 2005.3100.01
- catalog number
- 2005.3100.01
- nonaccession number
- 2005.3100
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Pamphlet, Discovering Arithmetic Book 2, Workbook for Stern Apparatus
- Description
- Documentation received with Catherine Stern's apparatus for teaching arithmetic suggests how her ideas changed over time. This colorfully illustrated workbook from 1952 describes an early version of the apparatus she developed to teach arithmetic. Houghton Mifflin produced and sold the device and the publication. A few problems are worked in pencil.
- For a later form of Stern's apparatus, see 2005.0229.01 and 2005.0229.02. For the teacher’s guide corresponding to this workbook, see 2005.3100.11.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1952
- maker
- Stern, Catherine
- ID Number
- 2005.3100.10
- nonaccession number
- 2005.3100
- catalog number
- 2005.3100.10
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Stern Structural Arithmetic Kit A
- Description
- A counting board, designed to introduce the names of numbers, has grooves of length 1 through 10 that hold rods of appropriate length. At the top of each groove is an indentation that holds a wooden number marker, that is to say a block marked with a digit. A flat wooden board known as a number guide, marked with the numbers from 1 through 10, fits across the back of the counting board.
- The kit also includes 10 so-called pattern boards, boards indented with holes that hold a single cube. The holes are arranged in two columns. There is a pattern board for each number from 1 through 10. These are designed to teach the distinction between even and odd numbers, as well as addition and subtraction of 0, 1, and 2. A set of 10 yellow cardboard cards known as pattern board slides shows the arrangement of cubes for each number.
- Also included are a set of 10 number cases, square boxes that hold from 1x1 through 10x10 cubes. Two further 10x10 number cases(known as "unit boxes") contain a set of 100 cubes and a set of 19 rods (one rod of length 10 and two of each of the shorter lengths). There is also a "number track" that holds up to 10 cubes.
- A series of folding paper "subtraction shields," representing integer lengths, can be placed over cubes to indicate subtraction. One set of 9 of these is made up, another of 8 is uncut and in a wrapper. Finally, there is a set of 10 yellow cards, each marked with a digit from 1 to 10, as well as a card marked with a subtraction sign and another with an equals sign. These "number slides" fit in a folding "number stand." Also present is a manual of instructions dated 1966.
- This apparatus was designed by Catherine Stern, a physicist by training and the founder of a Montessori school in her native Germany. Stern and her husband were of Jewish descent, and emigrated to New York City in 1938 to avoid persecution by the Nazis. There she developed these materials, described in her 1949 book Children Discover Arithmetic. The equipment was first used in preschools and then in primary schools.
- The kit includes diverse wooden cubes, rods, and cases, as well as paper cards and covers. The painted cubes are 11/16" (1.8 cm.) on a side, and the rods are of integer multiples of this length. The rods are painted green (1), violet (2), white (3), brown (4), yellow (5), red (6), light blue (7), orange (8), black (9) and dark blue (10). There is also a unit cube in each of these colors.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1966
- maker
- Stern, Catherine
- ID Number
- 2005.0229.01
- catalog number
- 2005.0229.01
- accession number
- 2005.0229
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Stern Structural Arithmetic Kit Supplement
- Description
- Catherine Stern, a physicist by training and the founder of a Montessori school in her native Germany, designed this apparatus. Stern and her husband were of Jewish descent, and emigrated to New York City in 1938 to avoid persecution by the Nazis. There she developed these materials, described in her 1949 book Children Discover Arithmetic. The equipment was used in preschools and later in primary schools.
- This is a supplement to Stern’s Structural Arithmetic Kit A. It includes wooden cubes, rods, and cases, as well as paper cards and styrofoam squares. The painted cubes are 11/16” (1.8 cm.) on a side, and the rods are of integer multiples of this length. The rods are painted green (1), violet (2), white (3), brown (4), yellow (5), red (6), light blue (7), orange (8), black (9) and dark blue (10). There are ten rods of each color except dark blue, with 11 of these). There also are ten unit cubes in each of the colors white, red, dark blue, and black. Included is a unit box with 19 rods (as in the other kit). A grooved wooden number track reaches from 0 to 100. It is in 10 pieces held together with dowels, with two end pieces as well.
- For teaching two-digit numbers,Stern designed a “dual board” that holds up to ten 10-rods in one square and up to 10 unit cubes in an adjacent groove. Two notched wooden “standards” hold up the dual board. To teach about hundreds, Stern used ten styrofoam pieces, each a 10x10 square. The kit also includes two sets of cards showing single digits, and a third set of cards showing two-digit numbers (the latter incomplete). Cards of the first set fold, and are intended for teaching multiplication. The other cards fit in grooved blocks, one designed to hold two-digit numbers and the other for three-digit numbers. All of these materials fit in a cardboard box.
- The apparatus also includes a square wooden case, painted gray, called the 20-case, and used especially to teach the properties of the numbers from 11 to 20.
- For related objects see 2005.0229.01. For related documentation, see nonaccession 2005.3100.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1966
- maker
- Stern, Catherine
- ID Number
- 2005.0229.02
- catalog number
- 2005.0229.02
- accession number
- 2005.0229
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Structural Arithmetic I, Workbook for Stern Teaching Apparatus
- Description
- Documentation received with Catherine Stern's apparatus for teaching arithmetic suggests how her ideas changed over time. This colorful publication from 1965 describes a relatively late version of her teaching apparatus, as sold by Houghton Mifflin. Some exercises in the workbook have been completed. Stern's coauthors were Margaret B. Stern and Toni S. Gould.
- For Stern's apparatus, see 2005.0229.01 and 2005.0229.02. For closely related books, see 2005.3100.06 and 2005.3100.08.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1965
- maker
- Stern, Catherine
- Stern, Margaret B.
- Gould, Toni S.
- ID Number
- 2005.3100.04
- catalog number
- 2005.3100.04
- nonaccession number
- 2005.3100
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Structural Arithmetic 2, Workbook for Stern Teaching Apparatus
- Description
- Documentation received with Catherine Stern's apparatus for teaching arithmetic suggests how her ideas changed over time. This colorful publication from 1965 describes a relatively late version of her teaching apparatus, as sold by Houghton Mifflin. Some exercises in the workbook have been completed. Stern's coauthors were Margaret B. Stern and Toni S. Gould.
- For Stern's apparatus, see 2005.0229.01 and 2005.0229.02. For closely related books, see 2005.3100.04 and 2005.3100.08.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1965
- maker
- Stern, Catherine
- Stern, Margaret B.
- Gould, Toni S.
- ID Number
- 2005.3100.06
- nonaccession number
- 2005.3100
- catalog number
- 2005.3100.06
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Structural Arithmetic 3, Workbook for Stern Teaching Apparatus
- Description
- Documentation received with Catherine Stern's apparatus for teaching arithmetic suggests how her ideas changed over time. This colorful publication from 1965 describes a relatively late version of her teaching apparatus, as sold by Houghton Mifflin. The workbook has some loose pages. Stern's coauthors were Margaret B. Stern and Toni S. Gould.
- For Stern's apparatus, see 2005.0229.01 and 2005.0229.02. For closely related books, see 2005.3100.04 and 2005.3100.06.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1962
- maker
- Stern, Catherine
- Stern, Margaret B.
- Gould, Toni S.
- ID Number
- 2005.3100.08
- catalog number
- 2005.3100.08
- nonaccession number
- 2005.3100
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Cuisenaire Rods
- Description
- Wooden blocks and rods have long been used to teach young children about numbers and basic arithmetic. These are such a tool. They vary in length from 1 cm. to 10 cm., representing the numbers from 1 to 10. All rods of a given length are the same color. They are stored in a cloth bag. This set was designed by Emile-Georges Cuisenaire (1891-1976), a Belgian schoolteacher. Cuisenaire published an account of his rods in French in 1953 and attracted the attention of the Egyptian-born educator Caleb Gattegno (1910-1988).
- After the Soviet Union launched the Sputnik satellite in 1957, better instruction in science and mathematics became a national priority in the U.S. Scientists, mathematicians, and educators introduced objects like Cuisenaire rods to communicate to students their enthusiasm for basic principles.
- This set was donated by Coralee Critchfield. Gilliland. She was born in 1932 in Nebraska and grew up in Tecumseh, Nebraska, a town of about 3,000 inhabitants. She received a B.A. from Lindenwood College in St. Charles, Missouri, and a M.A. in the History of Art from the University of Chicago.
- Gilliland used the rods as an educator in Micronesia. She and her husband Thomas Gilliland first went there from 1957 to1959, where he had an administrative position with the Department of the Interior (then the governing authority in the area) in Majuro, Marshall Islands. She worked training elementary school teachers in the use of devices like Cuisenaire rods, and found that they were particularly suitable for teaching those whose primary language was not English. The Gillillands would return to Micronesia in the early 1960s, where Cory Gillilland served for a time as principal of the Truk high school. On her return to the United States, Gillilland became much involved in the Numismatics collections at the Smithsonian, publishing a monograph on stone money of Micronesia.
- References:
- Accession file.
- Coralee C. Gillilland, The Stone Money of Yap: A Numismatic Survey. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1975.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1965
- date received
- 1987
- ID Number
- 1987.0542.01
- catalog number
- 1987.0542.01
- accession number
- 1987.0542
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Numbers In Colour, A New Method of Teaching Arithmetic In Primary Schools
- Description
- During the 1950s, the Belgian teacher Emile-Georges Cuisenaire designed a set of rods to teach about numbers and basic arithmetic. Caleb Gattegno popularized his methods in Great Britain and the United States. This small paperbound book by Cuisenaire and Gattegno first appeared in 1954, was in its third edition by 1958, and was reprinted frequently in the next few years. This is a 1961 printing.
- For a set of Cuisenaire rods and further information about the donor of the materials, see 1987.0542.01. For related documentation see 1987.0542.02 through 1987.0542.07.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1961
- maker
- Cuisenaire, G.
- ID Number
- 1987.0542.02
- accession number
- 1987.0542
- catalog number
- 1987.0542.02
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
