Classroom teachers try to provide opportunities for students to practice and use the algebra skills they are learning in ways that are nonroutine. They also want to help students connect the big ideas of math with the skills they are learning as part of the balance between understanding concepts and procedures. Math games can be used to accomplish…

The mean can be interpreted as a fair-share value and as a balance point. Standards documents, including Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM) (CCSSI 2010), suggest focusing on both interpretations. In this article, the authors propose a sequence of five activities to help students develop these understandings of the mean, and they…

"Mathematical modeling of the physical world should be the central theme of physics instruction" (Hestenes 1987). Science teachers know this, but because of standardized state testing, many math teachers and some science teachers feel the need to focus on memorizing facts that will be on a multiple-choice test (Volante 2004). As a…

Having an answer to "When are we ever going to use this in real life?" is important to middle school mathematics teachers. The activity described in this article awakened sixth graders' understanding of how artists use mathematics. By exploring ratio and proportionality in different paintings, students realized the use of proportional…

This article connects three disciplines while exploring how students computed tons of food consumed by both locusts and people. Included with this article are two worksheets "How Much Does a Locust Eat?" and "Can You Eat Those Locusts?". (Contains 3 figures.)