Building activities can be used any time in the school year in mathematics classes to promote problem solving, perseverance, and to develop students' spatial thinking. Spatial visualization skills are the "ability to mentally manipulate, rotate, twist, or invert a pictorially presented stimulus object." The authors were guided by the…

This article presents an original puzzle that supports students' development of visual thinking and geometry ideas based on the Van Hiele levels of geometric thought. The "Triangle Puzzle" is one of many tools teachers can use to guide students' learning of geometry. The Van Hiele's theory provides a way to assess and support this…

Integer operations are typically introduced in sixth grade, but they are a consistent area of struggle among these students. This struggle also inhibits their understanding of algebraic computations involving positive and negative terms. In this article, the author provides introductory tasks and models for adding and subtracting integers that can…

Sequences are an important topic--not only in mathematics but also in the mathematics curriculum. Exploring sequences related to medial triangles offers learners opportunities to solve problems involving sequences within geometric contexts. Sequences related to medial triangles are also a rich source of beautiful and interesting geometric patterns…

This article shares two activities geared toward students in middle school that engage students in analyzing measures of center, specifically the arithmetic mean, and using transnumerative thinking with the ultimate goal of improving students' statistical literacy. Both activities support the Common Core standard, 6.SP.B.5 "Summarize and…

In this article, the authors offer four specific reading comprehension strategies that mathematics teachers of all levels can employ with their students when working on word problems: (1) visualizing; (2) retelling; (3) making connections; and (4) asking questions. These strategies, which have a substantial research base in literacy, are discussed…

Spatial ability was defined by Lohman (1996) as the ability to create, maintain, retrieve, and change visual pictures. Linn and Peterson (1985) distinguished among spatial perception, mental rotation, and spatial visualization. Spatial perception is the determination of spatial connections with respect to the orientation of the learners' body;…