Common Sense Media Review
By Erin Brereton
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Detailed math videos and practice -- from simple to complex.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 11+?
Any Positive Content?
What's It About?
By providing videos that break down math and physics concepts, Virtual Nerd helps kids and teens learn about fractions, decimals, and other topics. Users can also create lists comprised of videos and practice problems that they plan to tackle. Teachers and schools are able to sign up and offer their students customized extra math help. However, parents should be aware that, at least for now, all user-created playlists are public. Once their school has signed up, kids can easy add links to external YouTube videos -- and swap lists.
Is It Any Good?
VIRTUAL NERD offers instructional videos, practice problems, and supplementary written materials to help middle school- to high school-aged students learn math and science concepts. Kids can access tutorials on geometry, algebra and other subjects; they can also save lists of certain videos and math questions to help them categorize what they're learning by topic or grade level. However, once your school or district subscribes to the site's school edition, kids can assign each other playlists -- which could potentially be problematic because, in addition to Virtual Nerd educational videos and problems, users can also include links to any YouTube video.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about what things you might not want to add -- such as a personal photo to a link to a video on another site -- to your online profile. How can you know if friends or other users you don't know will be able to see something you post?
Which ways does your teen like learning new math concepts? Do visual examples help your child understand algebra and other types of math -- and, if so, what real-life examples might help your child understand certain theories?
Videos created specifically for the site illustrate math and science problems; however, users can also link to other videos from YouTube in their playlists. How can you tell if a link someone sends you is OK to click on -- even if it comes from someone you know at school?
Website Details
- Subjects : Math : algebra , functions , geometry , graphing , probability , ratio , statistics , Science : momentum , motion , physics
- Skills : Self-Direction : academic development , self-assessment , Thinking & Reasoning : problem solving , thinking critically
- Genre : Educational
- Pricing structure : Free
- Last updated : November 11, 2020
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