Understanding of the principle of verticality was tested by having 246 sixth-grade students draw a pendulum on pictures of an abstract shape similar to a steeple. Girls performed more poorly than boys. Verticality was apparently much better understood by subjects than horizontality, also tested to provide a comparison. (Author)

The effect of direction of motion on the difficulty of slides, flips, and turns for first, third, and fifth graders was examined. The study considered only students with no training in transformation tasks. The investigation found that the sex main effect was not significant. (Author/MP)

Offers 3 teaching designs developed for 12- to 16-year-old pupils taking into account personal differences in gender, culture, knowledge, and use of calculators. The designs concern the representation of three-dimensional objects in the plane, directions and great circles on the sphere, and exploration of the integrating calculator. (Contains 31…