Building activities can be used any time in the school year in mathematics classes to promote problem solving, perseverance, and to develop students' spatial thinking. Spatial visualization skills are the "ability to mentally manipulate, rotate, twist, or invert a pictorially presented stimulus object." The authors were guided by the…

A primary goal of ethnomodeling is to value, sustain, and in some instances introduce cultural practices and traditions that have often been lost or overshadowed because of an emphasis on modern methods (Orey & Rosa, 2010). Through an ethnomodeling task focusing on geometric transformations, the authors share a Model It! activity to engage…

Technology will not inherently make students in any classroom more mathematically inquisitive, however, the use of technology can foster student-centered inquiry. This article explores the impact technology has on mathematics learning when it emphasizes the ways it supports student-centered pedagogies. Through this lens, the authors focus on…

Generalizing, conjecturing, representing, justifying, and refuting are integral parts of algebraic thinking and mathematical thinking in general (Lannin et al., 2011). The activity described in this article makes a case for generalizing as an overall mindset for any introductory algebra or geometry class by illustrating how generalization problems…

Valid proofs need not be in the traditional two-column format. This classroom activity allows students to explore, discuss, and use specialized facts to create a general statement of truth.