The authors wondered if there was a way to support their reluctant Grades 4, 5, and 6 students in contributing their starting points and strategies and advancing their collective knowledge. They wanted to ensure that the students had the space to develop and take ownership of the strategies they produced through a visual representation of ideas…

Using question 28 from the May Problems to Ponder in volume 114, the author and her seventh- and eighth-grade students launched into a discussion of creativity, linearity, piecewise, and recursive definitions of functions. This pattern to ponder provided rich mathematical opportunities for all students in her middle school classroom.

This article demonstrates how, and provides all necessary material, to utilize experiential classroom integration of an earthquake insurance policy as an engaging and immersive tool to introduce business law students to applied contract analysis and interpretation. Students also gain an understanding of insurance concepts through this exercise.…

This original teaching idea uses an adaption of the STEM activity the Paper Tower Challenge to have students examine task and maintenance roles as well as non-functioning behaviors in small groups. While problem solving as a small group, students navigate conflict and frustration, assume various small-group roles, and then reflect on their own and…

The purpose of this article is to introduce a lesson fondly referred to as the 'Lego Shop' lesson. It stands out as not only the most engaging lesson we've conducted but is also highly adaptable to accommodate a diverse range of learners. Successfully implemented across all year levels, from Foundation to Year 6, this lesson has proven to be…

Most American colleges and universities assimilate students into highly competitive undergraduate experiences. By placing achievement for personal and material gain as the bedrock of a college education, these institutions fail to educate students to become collaborative learners: people who are committed and prepared to join with others in…

We describe a formative assessment approach called whole-class think alouds, which foster evidence-based instructional practices and promote the goal of assessment to promote learning. They allow students to collaborate and orally communicate their problem solving.

A problem-based learning activity focusing on the human impact on the environment and the importance of sustainable development is presented. The activity revolves around a mysterious island where the civilization is on the blink of extinction, prompting students to investigate how human behavior, ecosystems, resources, and natural balance…

Universal Design (UD) involves the creation of accessible, flexible products that are functional for a wide population of users. Our problem-based learning exercise challenges student teams to create products and services guided by the principles of UD. After teams generate their new product concept, a spokesperson from each team pitches it in…

This edited volume gathers contributions from international scholars focusing on social media's role and impact on mathematics education. Social media's integration into pedagogical strategies (from social networking sites to video-sharing platforms) offers the opportunity to enhance learning by fostering connectivity and engagement among…

Skills in creativity are needed to meet the needs of today's organizations, and design thinking is a process that one can learn to become more creative. Yet the diminishing exposure to and pursuit of humanities courses, which have traditionally developed these skills, has put pressure on business schools to fill the gap. This experiential learning…

This article presents "Be a coach instead of a judge" pedagogy that has resulted in significant improvement in college student learning/performance, highly favorable student comments and better teaching evaluations. This pedagogy inspires students to learn by embracing empathy, enthusiasm, positivity and trust along with other learning…

A constant challenge for faculty is to gain and to hold student interest so that substantive learning can occur. One way to achieve this is through the use of games. This article describes an escape room activity for the classroom that is modeled after commercial escape rooms. This fun, single-session team dynamics exercise can be used in an…

Responding to change is a critical workforce competency and an essential skill for effective leadership and management along with abilities to work in a group, problem solve, and demonstrate critical thinking capabilities. In this experiential exercise, students collaborate in groups, think critically, and respond to customer demands in a…

Author and educator Jason McKenna describes how teaching STEM education in his elementary school changed his classroom and his life, improving his students' and his own approaches to problem solving, collaboration, and general motivation to learn. Offering examples, tried and tested classroom projects, and collaborative strategies, this innovative…