This paper shares a flexible activity for engaging people in mathematical inquiry that does not depend on fixed prior knowledge built on a famous property of Möbius strips. The discussion includes the implementation of the activity and its extensions, facilitator moves and common participant thinking, suggestions for adaptation and integration…

This study contributes a methodological tool to reconstruct the cognitive processes and mathematical activities carried out by mathematical modelers. Represented as Modeling Transition Diagrams (MTDs), individual modeling routes were constructed for four engineering undergraduate students. Findings stress the importance and limitations of using…

Looking for, recognizing, and using underlying mathematical structure is an important aspect of mathematical reasoning. We explore the use of mathematical structure in children's integer strategies by developing and exemplifying the construct of logical necessity. Students in our study used logical necessity to approach and use numbers in a…

In this article we explore young children's development of mathematical knowledge and reasoning processes as they worked two modelling problems (the "Butter Beans Problem" and the "Airplane Problem"). The problems involve authentic situations that need to be interpreted and described in mathematical ways. Both problems include tables of data,…