There are two activities: Explore and Generic. In the Explore activity, you can choose between an east-west diagram, altitude, and temperature as a situation to explore. In each situation, you will drag two markers to the number line wherever you want. You can choose to show a Distance Statement which shows you the expression for that distance as the absolute value of their difference.
In the Generic activity, you will see either a vertical or a horizontal number line, and you drag two points on it. Again, the program shows you the calculation for the distance between them. For example, if you drag the points to 4 and −(−6), it shows you |6 − (−4)| = 10.
These activities work best for exploring and illustrating the concept of how the difference between two integers is calculated using subtraction and absolute value. The activities do not include a game or practice exercises.
The activities tie in with the standard 7.NS.A.1c: Show that the distance between two rational numbers on the number line is the absolute value of their difference, and apply this principle in real-world contexts.
Credit: This activity is created by PhET
Screenshots from the activity:
