What is Base ten block?
{{no sources|date=January 2021}} [[File:Dienes Material (Dyskalkulie).jpg|thumb|Wooden Dienes blocks in units of 1, 10, 100 and 1000]] [[File:Dienes blocks used by a 8 year-old student.png|thumb|A student using base 10 blocks]] '''Base ten blocks''' are a tool to help students learn concepts in [[mathematics]] such as [[arithmetic]] and [[place value]].<ref>Van de Walle, John (2008). Elementary and Middle School Mathematics: Teaching Developmentally, p. 191. Pearson Education Inc. USA. {{ISBN|0-205-57352-5}}</ref> They are also known as '''multibase arithmetic blocks (MABs)''' or '''Dienes blocks''' after the Hungarian mathematician [[Zoltán Pál Dienes]], who told others about using them. Originally they were recommended for several several [[Base (group theory)|number bases]] ([[binary number|two]], [[ternary numeral system|three]], etc.) but today only the base ten blocks are in widespread use.<ref>{{cite book |last=Dienes |first=Zoltán Pál |author-link=Zoltán Pál Dienes |year=1960 |title=Building Up Mathematics |place=London |publisher=Hutchinson |url=https://archive.org/details/buildingupmathem00dien/ |url-access=limited }} {{pb}} {{cite book |last=Dienes |first=Zoltán Pál |year=1963 |title=An Experimental Study of Mathematics Learning |place=London |publisher=Hutchinson |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_090686500 |url-access=limited }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kim |first1=Rina |last2=Albert |first2=Lillie R. |title=The history of base-ten-blocks: Why and who made base-ten-blocks |journal=Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences |volume=5 |number=9 |year=2014 |pages=356–365 |doi=10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n9p356|doi-access=free }}</ref> Base ten blocks were first described by [[Catherine Stern]] in 1949,<ref>{{cite book |last=Stern |first=Catherine |author-link=Catherine Stern |year=1949 |title=Children Discover Arithmetic |publisher=Harper & Row }} ([https://archive.org/details/childrendiscover0000ster/ Revised edition, 1971], with Margaret Stern.)</ref> == Use == These blocks come in four different