Relational Geosolids
Web Link: Cubes
Flexibility: Despite its name, this applet is not about cubes. It is about the surface area, volume, and nets of rectangular prisms. The virtual manipulative gives a net of the rectangular prism and students can then input the surface area and volume. They can use rows, layers, or single cubes to fill in the volume of the prism. The prism will also fold whenever a side is clicked on, allowing students to see how the nets fold into the solid.
User Interface: Mouse and touchpad friendly. Touch-friendly.
Browsers: Works with all major browsers.
Web Link: Geometric Solids
Flexibility: This virtual manipulative allows students to rotate and manipulate geo-solids of tetrahedrons, cubes, octahedrons, dodecahedrons, and icosahedrons. The student can click on each side to identify the edges, the corners to identify the vertices, and the faces to identify the faces. The applet allows students to view it as solid, transparent, or shaded. Students may also zoom in and out of the solid. The solids will also fold out into their nets if the option is selected. Students also have the option to make their own net using pentagons, hexagons, squares, and triangles. However, while these nets will not fold to show the solid created they can be printed off to be cut out and folded.
User Interface: Mouse and touchpad friendly. Touch works intermittently, cannot rotate the solids with touch easily.
Browsers: Works with all major browsers.
Web Link: Nets of 3D Shapes - Animations
Flexibility: Not a single applet, but several hosted on the same website. The students can, with control of a slider, slowly open or close the nets of cubes, cylinders, cones, and tetrahedrons. The student can also rotate the solid to provide better, or multiple, views of it. This provides a nice compliment to the Geometric Solids (NCTM) activity.
User Interface: Mouse and touchpad friendly. Touch-friendly.
Browsers: Works with all major browsers.
Web Link: Geometry 3-D Shapes Interactive - Annenberg Learner
Flexibility: This virtual textbook contains a number of small applets which show the nets and folding of various solids. Euler's theorem contains a nice applet showing the nets of most shapes commonly taught in a mathematics classroom.
User Interface: Mouse and touchpad friendly. Touch-friendly.
Browsers: Works with all major browsers.