This article presents a reflection on a teaching experience involving the use of the Brügner tangram, an interesting but little-known manipulative material. It details an activity conducted as part of an undergraduate mathematics education course for prospective primary school teachers. The main objective of this paper is to present the…

This article presents a task providing college students opportunities to build on their high school knowledge of trigonometry to explore parametric equations and inverse trigonometric relationships within a contextual learning ladder problem.

This manuscript proposes the use of the "I notice, I wonder" routine in college mathematics classrooms to address issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Examples are given of prompts that incorporate meaningful conversations about real-world issues affecting our students or about issues of inclusion, access, and representation in…

Linear algebra students are typically introduced to the problem of how to convert from one coordinate system to another in a very abstract way. Often, two bases for a given vector space are provided, and students are taught how to determine a transition matrix to be used for changing coordinates. If students are successful in memorizing this…

The properties of a function such as limit, continuity, derivative, growth, or concavity can be determined more easily from its graph than by doing any algebraic operation. For this reason, it is important for students of mathematics to interpret some of the properties of a function from its graph. In this study, we investigated the competence of…

The purpose of this article is to present two very active applied modeling projects that were successfully implemented in a first semester calculus course at Hollins University. The first project uses a logistic equation to model the spread of a new disease such as swine flu. The second project is a human take on the popular article "Do Dogs Know…

In this article we consider an example suitable for investigation in many mid and upper level undergraduate mathematics courses. Fourier series provide an excellent example of the differences between uniform and non-uniform convergence. We use Dirichlet's test to investigate the convergence of the Fourier series for a simple periodic saw tooth…

Discussed is the method of substitution of variables within the framework of precalculus level extremum problems, both maximum and minimum. Many examples with graphical representations are provided. (JJK)

This article addresses the enhancement of the learning environment by using Java applets in the mathematics classroom. Currently, the first year mathematics program at the United States Military Academy involves one semester of modeling with discrete dynamical systems (DDS). Several faculty members from the Academy have integrated Java applets…