Young children's exposure to early math concepts is important in their development, in their confidence in math skills, and in their ability to use math later in life. In 2013, the Heising-Simons Foundation embarked on an innovative path to support children's early math development. The Foundation invited several family engagement providers to…

Suggesting that children's literature has a powerful role to play in restoring story to the teaching and learning of mathematics, this book shows how stories are natural invitations for learners to explore the mathematics of their own lives and the lives of others. Each chapter of the book explores books on a given topic and gives some examples of…

Explores first-year students' understanding of fundamental calculus concepts using written tests and interviews. Analysis of the written and verbal responses to the test items revealed significant misconceptions on which students' mathematical activities were based. Describes some of those misconceptions and errors relating to students'…

This paper describes a model of student attainment of mathematical concepts and its development. In this model three types of activities (developmental, connecting, and abstract) are considered as an overlay on the three ways of representing mathematical concepts (physical/visual, oral, and symbolic). Each activity type involves some means of…

How physiological disciplines can contribute to the study of how people learn mathematics is considered. Manipulative and experiential learning, sequential versus hierarchical organization, declarative versus procedural knowledge, and short-term versus long-term memory are among the points discussed. (MNS)

Explores meanings of "generic" and "generality" as they are found both in everyday language and as they confront mathematics students. Considers everyday occurrences of the idea of generic (leading to the notion of a generic example of a class) and some ramifications in elementary algebra. (JN)

Presented is an example meant to enable students with a scant mathematical education to grasp the meaning of the limit of the binomial distribution. (Author/TG)

Describes a test using 155 third-year undergraduates in 15 different institutions to examine the extent to which certain core first-year material is retained and understood. Includes an analysis of the answers given by students to each question as well as some of their comments. Students' misconceptions indicate that foundations laid in the first…

Discusses a strategy for teaching degrees of freedom (in conjunction with sampling theory). The strategy, used successfully with students who have completed no more than beginning secondary school algebra, involves drawing items from a pool of five in a hat while explaining sample means and variances. (DH)

There are many uses for the shortest path algorithm presented which are limited only by our ability to recognize when a problem may be converted into the shortest path in a graph representation. (Author/TG)

Suggestions for teaching the concept of division by zero are given. (MK)

Provides a review of four complimentary mathematics dictionaries sent to the author. Evaluates the dictionaries for their audience, content, and accessibility to elementary and secondary school students. (MDH)

Utilizing composition of elementary functions as prototype of dynamical system, notions of periodic points and their orbits in relation to concept of shift map are used to illustrate concept of continuity. A special case of Sarkovskii's theorem, dealing with period-3 point, is presented with proof relying solely upon Intermediate Value Theorem and…

This document plus diskette product provides nine interactive puzzles and games that both teach and provide practice with simple addition and subtraction concepts. The activities address these skills through carrying in addition and regrouping in subtraction. The activities address cognitive skills such as problem solving, planning, visual pattern…

The concept of pi is one of great importance to all developed civilization and one that can be explored and mastered by elementary students through an inductive and problem-solving approach. Such an approach is outlined and discussed. The approach involves the following biblical quotation: "And he made a moltin sea ten cubits from one brim to…