To move information toward knowledge and activity toward mastery, learners must play with ideas, use them, and make them their own. Methods for achieving mastery include interdisciplinary approaches that require deep thinking, story telling, and reflection. (Contains 20 references.) (SK)

Experiences with tessellations used with a group of preservice elementary teachers are described. Specific illustrations of patterns are included, with details on how these are analyzed. (MNS)

A game involving operations on whole numbers, observing patterns in the relationships between operands and results, and seeking problems yielding various numerical solutions is described. (SD)

The number concepts of greatest common divisor and least common multiple are related to star patterns created through line designs. (JT)

The activity provides practice plotting points in the Cartesian plane, develops inductive skills in pattern recognition, develops verbal and translation skills, and acquaints students with some properties of linear relations. Three worksheets are included. (MNS)