Building on the definition of steamers (a tasty hot milk-infused drink), we defined STEAMMERS as "a blend of diverse talents, going beyond domain-specific to domain-integrated abilities. Like steamers, they have a rich and colorful 'flavor'!" They are passionate about solving problems they and others face by honoring and blending diverse…

This working group continues to develop a research program on the practice of launching mathematical tasks and its resulting impact on learners. Our research agenda contains two strands of inquiry exploring (1) theory and framework building concerning effective launches and (2) empirical examination of the link between launching and opportunities…

Assimilating an algorithmic course is a persistent problem for many undergraduate students. The major problem faced by students is the lack of problem solving ability and flexibility. Therefore, students are generally passive, unmotivated and unable to mobilize all the acquired knowledge (loops, test, variables, etc.) to deal with new encountered…

New strategies can ignite teachers' imagination to create new lessons or adapt lessons created by others. In this article, the authors present the experience of an algebra teacher and his students solving linear and literal equations and explain how the use of ideas found in past NCTM journals helped bring this lesson to life. The…

This article invites media arts and technology educators to find synergies in their classroom curriculum and practice. Encouraging the use of the National Media Arts Standards it summons teachers to develop a useful framework for technological practice that utilizes arts knowledge and pedagogies.

The Encouraging Persistence Maintaining Challenge (EMPC) Project has been working with secondary teachers in Melbourne as they seek to build persistence in students, during work on challenging mathematics tasks. The authors have developed sequences of tasks in various topic areas for Years 7 and 8, which require students to connect different…

Sometimes a student's unexpected solution turns a routine classroom task into a real problem, one that the teacher cannot resolve right away. Although not knowing the answer can be uncomfortable for a teacher, these moments of uncertainty are also an opportunity to model authentic problem solving. This article describes such a moment in Zahner's…

In this article, the author describes the Launch-Explore-Summarize teaching model which provides a way to structure how students participated in tasks. Shifting the structure of lessons helped the author foster her desired mathematical environment. This approach to teaching was different for her in that it recommended giving students very little…

Though many teachers have adopted collaborative models for teaching writing and literature, much of classroom discussion, in small or large groups, is driven by the assumption that arguing ideas is a competitive exercise. Generally, essays written in this context are "counter-positional" and "agonistic," supporting points by…

What does it look like to "understand" operations with fractions? The Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM) uses the term "understand" when describing expectations for students' knowledge related to each of the fraction operations within grades 4 through 6 (CCSSI 2010). Furthermore, CCSSM elaborates that…

This article, the second of a two-part series, features 11 teaching innovations presented at the 2014 Association for Business Communication annual conference. These 11 assignments included leadership and other-focused communication--detecting communication style, adaptive communication, personality type, delivering feedback, problem solving, and…

This article describes an instructional model that science teachers can use to promote and support student engagement in scientific argumentation. This model is called the evaluate-alternatives instructional model and it is grounded in current research on argumentation in science education (e.g., Berland and Reiser 2009; McNeill and Krajcik 2006;…

A case is described of the development of a lesson plan for 10th grade (age range 15-16) chemistry classes on the chemistry of shower gels. The lesson plan follows a socio-critical and problem-oriented approach to chemistry teaching. This means that, aside from learning about the basic chemistry of the components making up modern shower gels in…

This is a teaching note on a proposed approach that will correct a common flaw in the way the return-generating process within the APT framework is illustrated in textbooks. The problem can be resolved by dichotomizing the risk factors into two kinds. Based on this approach, the author eliminated the main source of confusion and developed an…

Marketing faculty use cases, simulations, and client-sponsored projects to achieve learning objectives in the marketing capstone class. This class typically aims to integrate and apply previously learned material and to transition students into their careers. Drawing on the professional school, creative problem solving and constructivist learning…