An interview with a sixth-grade student illustrates how her number sense and understanding of variability relate to her ability and proclivity to apply a frequentist (statistical) approach to probability tasks. A general suggestion for teaching about mathematics of uncertainty through the gradual strengthening of estimation, as per the historical…

Often, quantitative and mathematical models are used to study complex dynamic systems--where collections of individual components interact to produce an emergent pattern of behavior. To interpret such models involves 'unpacking' the collective behaviors and interactions that underlie a given pattern. We investigate what representational supports…