To help middle school students make better sense of decimals and fraction, the author and an eighth-grade math teacher worked on a 90-minute lesson that focused on representing repeating decimals as fractions. They embedded experimentations and explorations using technology and calculators to help promote students' intuitive and conceptual…

The paper uses digital fabrication as a learning environment to demonstrate the importance of conceptual understanding of one-variable inequalities. These inequalities are hidden within two-variable inequalities used to construct geometric shapes the borders of which are the graphs of basic functions from the secondary mathematics curriculum. As…

To support students' development of concepts in mathematics, the use of technology is often encouraged (Common Core State Standards Initiative [CCSSI] 2010). Technology can contextualize learning and provide a meaningful setting for mathematical ideas. Most teachers are supportive regarding the use of technology to encourage learning and…

Inclusion and differentiation--hallmarks of the current educational system--require a paradigm shift in the way that educators run their classrooms. This article enumerates the need for techno-kinesthetic, visually based activities and offers an example of a calculator-based programming activity that addresses that need. After discussing the use…

Building physical models relative to a concept can be an important activity to help students develop and manipulate abstract ideas and mental models that often prove difficult to grasp. One such concept is "time". A method for helping students understand the cyclical nature of time involves the construction of a Time Zone Calculator through a…

This article reports on a research effort that investigated whether the use of Microcomputer-Based Labs (MBLs), implemented within an inquiry-based activity sequence on phase transformations (melting and freezing), contributes to the development of fourth grade (9-10 year-old) students' conceptual understanding and ability to construct and…

In this report, we give a sociocultural account of the mediating functions handheld graphing calculators and social interaction play in students' mathematical understanding. We discuss the evolution of students' abilities to symbolize, model, and develop collective mathematical practices about polynomial inequalities in instrumented activity. In…

Discusses a differential equations course emphasizing conceptual understanding, linear and nonlinear systems, and technology. Presents sample exercises illustrating the difference between this approach and the traditional approach. (MKR)

This paper reports on a mathematics course in an Austrian high school that focuses on probability distributions. Students in this course used a TI-92 during math classes, at home for doing exercises, and during math tests. The TI-92 was used as a tool for calculations and illustrations making the concepts of probability distributions easy to…

Documents the experiences of two teachers and their kindergarten and first-grade students in working with calculators as an ongoing and integral component of their mathematical programs. Focuses on ways that the children and teachers use the calculator to develop ideas of number through explorations of numerals, counting, number magnitude, and…

Explores how to use Gardner's Multiple Intelligence theory to help students' master multiplication. Focuses on helping children use their different intelligence strength to attain conceptual understanding of multiplication, develop their own thinking strategies for harder facts, and build mastery through practice and problem solving. (KHR)

The concept of function is central in mathematics and grows in importance as one progresses in depth and breadth of understanding mathematics. Results from national assessment progress reports indicate that the majority of students do not comprehend the concepts of function and graphing. Technology has the potential to improve the understanding of…

This report presents a rationale for development of an international perspective on the role of research in the improvement of science education in particular and education in general. Costa Rica, Trinidad and Tobago, Mexico and the United States are the participating countries. Topics discussed include: (1) goals and directions for science…