Good deed of the day, help me with Mathematical Shapes

[rutger5000]

I volunteer as a physics / math / chemistry tutor to high school kids, and became the go to guy for those subjects at the organisation I work for. I proposed they should buy some mathematical shapes such a cubes, spheres and cylinders to use for demonstrations and to help the students gain some more insight. They loved the idea, but they have no idea where they could get those kind of things, nor what good requirements (for the shapes) would be.
Anyone has some ideas on this. Maximum budget for all of this would be 300 dollars tops I think. Most demonstrations will go one on one.

 

[rutger5000]

I'm sorry but i feel like your teaching a bunch of handicapped children not high school students. Geometry consisted of a chalk board and a piece of chalk for me. Put your money in to that and draw shapes. From that point add dimensions and drill relations to equations into their head.

Now that is just plainly insulting. Just because children have problems with geometry or math doesn't make them stupid! There are lot of bright children that are struggling with mathematics and all fields aligned to it, but they excel in others.
Apart from that the organization lacks teacher that could draw those shapes well.

 

[dmase]

I'm sorry but i feel like your teaching a bunch of handicapped children not high school students. Geometry consisted of a chalk board and a piece of chalk for me. Put your money in to that and draw shapes. From that point add dimensions and drill relations to equations into their head.

Now that is just plainly insulting. Just because children have problems with geometry or math doesn't make them stupid! There are lot of bright children that are struggling with mathematics and all fields aligned to it, but they excel in others.
Apart from that the organization lacks teacher that could draw those shapes well.

High school students bro, at this point don't you think they could tell you the difference between a rhombus and cone? If you where talking about Elementary school kids then yes I could understand but not high school kids.

Why can't these teachers draw these shapes? I mean you don't need to be an art or math teacher to be able to draw a 3-d shape. I understand that the program you might work for is under funded and more than likely staffed by a few people the same age as the people their tutoring but how can they not draw these shapes.

Alright, so is this a geometry course? Are you having trouble finding 3-d figures?

Now take a step back from your situation, put a picture in your mind of what your looking for.

http://www.landofnod.com/1/1/1742-kids-classic-toys-kids-geometrical-shaped-building-blocks.html

Consider it insulting if you want but the only resources I imagine you would find that are purely teaching resources would be for teaching children anyways. So if the toys don't fit your needs i'd suggest looking into something on a scholastic site like this.

http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/search?query=shapes

 

[rutger5000]

http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/search?query=shapes

Thanks, but I would prefer hollow shapes. That way it's easier to broaden their insight about the volumes. And I shouldn't exaggerate the teacher can draw the shapes, but it all takes time, and I feel it would benefit the children if they could use real life examples.

 

[joe the janitor]

Umm, what grade is this?

 

[rutger5000]

Umm, what grade is this?

Rather high actually, the Dutch education system works differently from the American one (Forgive me for assuming you're American). To get to university you need to go to a special kind of high school that has 6 years. The classes are more difficult then the other kind of high schools, but you can get along perfectly fine without knowing any math if you play your cards right. (Which I consider to be an enormous flaw in our education system, but whatever.)
I pretty much teach all the years form the first to the sixth, and even at the higher grades I see there are students that have no insight if it involves the volume of the objects, in fact they hardly understand what volume is. I think it could help me fix that if I had hollow figures of the shapes in which I could pour watter.

 

[Jonluw]

I imagine you could get hold of some different hollow shapes at toy stores, but whenever themes like this come up, a little DIY man awakes inside me.
So I guess my advice is seeing if you can make the shapes yourself.

Need a cylinder? Bottle, hacksaw, spray paint.
A cube? Cardboard box, spray paint.
Nah, carboard won't work. Too rackety.
Plywood and nails should perhaps work.

I realize this probably isn't what you're looking for, but I honestly can't think of any other way.
Why spray paint? I figure it looks far more professional if the shapes have an aesthetically pleasing unison colour.