About Mean: Share and Balance
Explore the mean by leveling cups of water, distributing candy bars, fairly sharing apples, and finding the balance point of a beam. Build a data set with a target mean. Challenge yourself to predict the mean before revealing it.
How to play Mean: Share and Balance
Everything is hands-on: drag, click and experiment — the simulation reacts instantly. Explore the mean by leveling cups of water, distributing candy bars, fairly sharing apples, and finding the balance point of a beam.
Questions & answers
- What is Mean: Share and Balance?
- Mean: Share and Balance is a free interactive simulation from PhET Interactive Simulations (University of Colorado Boulder) that you can play right in your browser on crumble.lol — no downloads and no sign-up. Explore the mean by leveling cups of water, distributing candy bars, fairly sharing apples, and finding the balance point of a beam. Build a data set with a target mean.
- What can kids learn from Mean: Share and Balance?
- It helps kids explore: justify how the mean is calculated. describe the mean in terms of leveling, fair share, and balance point. predict the effects of (an) outlier(s) on the mean. compare an original data set with manipulated data to see how the mean (leveled out, shared, or balanced) compares with the original data. predict the mean of a data set in continuous and discrete contexts.
- What age is Mean: Share and Balance good for?
- It is designed for middle school (roughly ages 10–14), and curious kids outside that range can absolutely enjoy poking around it too.
- Is Mean: Share and Balance free to play?
- Yes — Mean: Share and Balance is completely free on crumble.lol and runs fully in your browser on computers and tablets.