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Abacus set for comeback?

by Paul Conneally | February 15, 2009 at 03:09 am

776 views | 10 Recommendations | 2 comments

The abacus is an ancient calculating machine that uses beads on a frame which are moved manually.

In Asia the abacus is still used in many situations and children still learn how to use it.

With the state of numeracy amongst children in the UK and USA constantly coming into question some are suggesting that the abacus and its Japanese counterpart the sorobon could prove useful in western classrooms not only for use in their physical form but also as a mental mathematics tool where children visualise the abacus in their head when making calculations.

Some Asian countries began to move away from the abacus and adopt western modern mathematics teaching techniques but now they are moving back to using the abacus.

Some suggest that an abacus approach to financial dealings would make traders think twice before making deals and this could lead to less risky trading than just internet based calculations do.

Abacus mental arithmetic and memory techniques training programme will be launched tomorrow at MES Off Campus Centre for school students in the age group of four to 15 years.
Abacus is used for making calculations. Mental Arithmetic is visualising abacus in mind doing fast calculations. Memory Technique is especially designed for visualisation and imagination.
First six months is for foundation course in Abacus. In the first level (first three months) children are taught about abacus and how to use it. They will learn addition and subtraction up to 99.
In the second level, children visualise abacus. In all, there are eight levels of Abacus training. The course is of two-hour duration every week. The entire course covers two years coaching. “The programme enhances the performance of right brain and co-ordinate the functioning of right and left brain, and the overall performance of children will be at the peak,” Gama Abacus chief executive K Nakulanathan said.

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Uwe Paschen

at 03:30 on February 15th, 2009

I still use it. I also used the Chemical Calculations Ruler and it is usually faster then the Computer on large projects.

Paul Conneally

at 06:02 on February 15th, 2009

I've been to a couple of workshops encouraging educationalists in the UK to try using the Sorobon - the Japanese abacus - they were really impressive - and one practitioner told of how using the abacus with Aspergers an autism had a marked effect on their learning.