During their middle and early high school years, students generally finalise their attitude towards mathematics and their perception of themselves as students of mathematics, in terms of aptitude, motivation, interest, and competence. Therefore, giving them varied opportunities to foster a positive and successful approach to the study of…

When teaching transformations of functions, teachers typically have students vary the coefficients of equations and examine the resulting changes in the graph. This approach, however, may lead students to memorise rules related to transformations. Students need opportunities to think deeply about transformations beyond superficial observations…

Archimedes, the famous Greek mathematician, lived from 287 BCE until approximately 212 BCE. He thought that the figure of two semi-circles on a straight line enclosed by a larger semi-circle resembled a shoemaker's knife. Archimedes called this figure an "arbelos" since arbelos is the Greek word for a shoemaker's knife. The author describes the…

For mathematics teachers who are continually looking for ways in which to engage their students in the learning process, the capabilities offered by technology answer the call. Whether the technology comprises computer based applications or graphics calculators, often boring aspects can be bypassed so that students can work on the "good…

Reviews 10 years of graphing calculators. Examines the issues associated with them and attempts to confront some questions such as, for the teacher, whether graphing calculators should be used in instruction. (ASK)

This article describes a project in which certain key concepts in probability were explored using graphics calculators with year 10 students. The lessons were conducted in the regular classroom where students were provided with a Casio CFX 9850 GB PLUS graphics calculator with which they were familiar from year 9. The participants in the…

Technology is evolving and now some secondary classrooms see students using computer algebra systems (CAS), however, Zbiek (2003) points out that "graphical representations seem to abound in CAS-using classrooms" and "many [research] studies of the use of CAS depend highly on the graphing component of the tool". Kissane (2001) suggests that with…