This paper outlines a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) learning experience for children in the early years of school. It builds on STEM education in early childhood with a shared purpose, "to help children to explore and make sense of their world using childrelevant and appropriate contexts" (Preston, 2018 p. 137).…

Mobile devices are a ubiquitous accessory in daily life for millions of people. These devices can be used to effectively meet a user's information needs. Librarians can assist users with the skills to select, purchase, design, develop, deploy, and maintain mobile applications and related technologies (MAT). Project MISSILE (Mobile Information…

Engineers are faced with solving important problems every day and must follow a step-by-step design process to arrive at solutions. Students who are taught an effective design process to apply to engineering projects begin to see problems as an engineer would, consider all ideas, and arrive at the best solution. Using an effective design process…

Sprego is programming with spreadsheet functions. The present paper provides introductory Sprego examples which have so far only been available in Hungarian. Spreadsheet environments offer both a programming tool which best serves beginner and end-user programmers' interest, and an approach which lightens the burden of coding and language details.…

The 1998 paper by Martin Mühlenbrock, Frank Tewissen, and myself introduced a multi-agent architecture and a component engineering approach for building open distributed learning environments to support group learning in different types of classroom settings. It took up prior work on "multiple student modeling" as a method to configure…

"WeBWorK" CLASS combines the best features of online homework and digital whiteboards to create a system that provides instructors with information on students' problem-solving processes, as well as their final answer. The system's utilization of tools that can sort students based on correct and incorrect homework and quiz answers and…

I describe the first stages of a process of design research in which I employ problem-based learning in a course in engineering ethics, which fulfills a requirement for students in engineering degree programs. The aim of the course is to foster development of particular cognitive skills contributing to moral imagination, a capacity to notice,…

More than 2,200 years ago, Eratosthenes, who was a Greek astronomer, geographer, and mathematician, used a simple proportion involving the distance between two ancient cities and measures of shadows cast in those cities during a summer solstice to estimate the circumference of Earth (Nicastro 2008, 25-28). Today, middle school students can use…

Children's background experiences not only make them unique individuals, but also impact their interactions with texts because of their varied schema. Teachers who work with children should keep in mind Gregory Smith's (2002) five thematic patterns (cultural studies, nature studies, real world problem solving, internship and entrepreneurial…

During the past few years, several of the authors have incorporated student problem posing as a regular instructional feature in their classrooms. When they offer their students the opportunity to construct their own problems, particularly during the course of an entire school year, they create many novel tasks. Student-created tasks not only…

This article presents "The Two Children Problem," published by Martin Gardner, who wrote a famous and widely-read math puzzle column in the magazine "Scientific American," and a problem presented by puzzler Gary Foshee. This paper explains the paradox of Problems 2 and 3 and many other variations of the theme. Then the authors…

A serious drawback to electric vehicles [batteries only] is the idle time needed to recharge their batteries. In this challenge, students can develop ideas and concepts for battery change-out at automotive service stations. Such a capability would extend the range of electric vehicles.

The Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM) (CCSSI 2010) emphasize the Standards for Mathematical Practice (SMP) that describe processes and proficiencies included in the NCTM Process Standards (NCTM 2000) and in the Strands for Mathematical Proficiency (NRC 2001). The development of these mathematical practices should happen in…

In this article the author describes a problem posed to his class, "How many squares are there on a checkerboard?" The problem is deliberately vague so that the teacher can get the students to begin asking questions. The first goal is to come to an agreement about what the problem means (Identify the problem). The second goal is to get…

Provision of transcripts and certificates at the time of graduation, a normal expectation in higher education in developed countries, was a challenge in the case-study university, which risked affecting stakeholder satisfaction and student enrollment. A group problem-solving method was used to identify the scope of the problem, the goal, and to…