Virtual Manipulatives 4 - Function Machine

The virtual manipulative I will work with this week is Function Machine - Grades 6-8 Numbers and Operations. I was looking for something that my afterschool tutoring groups could use as a reinforcement activity for input/output tables. This was a weakness of the group based on an assessment done at the beginning of the tutoring program. This manipulative seems to be pretty good. It gives the students an opportunity to see a function machine and see the table that is created. When they put in the numbers 1, 2, 3 and 4 the computer tells them the output numbers. They have to use what they know to determine the pattern and fill in the remainder of the table, numbers 5 - 7. Once they figure out the pattern they can move on to a new function. I will use this with my group and see how they do with it. It does not seem to be as exciting and attention grabbing as some of the other virtual manipulatives we have explored.