In our experience thus far we've found that students are far less intimidated by the numbers/math when they're able to directly manipulate the results. When the

In our experience thus far we've found that students are far less intimidated by the numbers/math when they're able to directly manipulate the results. When they can tweak the numbers with minimal ramifications and instantaneous feedback they can easily intuit what the numbers are attempting to do. Working with young kids we definitely found that they were comfortable in this environment even after minimal introduction.