Daniel Jutras, Ph.D. shows how to use Montessori materials like the pink tower (and of course the trinomial cube) to teach many things including Pythagorean Theorem, geometry, basic algebra and of coure the trinomial equation. Free. Thanks, Dr. Jutras! and Thaks to Swan Mai for passing it along!
http://www.mepiforum.org/images/conferences/2007/myrtlebeach/Daniel%20Jutras%20Handout_2007.pdf