The purpose of this note is to outline further enrichment exercises with rhotrices and thus to stimulate ideas on mathematical arrays and structures. Rhotrices provide students with examples on how to imagine new forms of arrays and their classifications as abstract structures.

How should men and women be seated around a dinner table to maximize conversation between members of the opposite sex? What can be said about the distribution of points around two concentric circles? How are the white and black keys on the piano keyboard organized? What spin configuration in the Ising model minimizes energy? These four problems…

This article describes how sixth-grade students developed concrete models to solve division of fractions story problems. Students developed separate two-step procedures to solve measurement and partitive problems, drawing on invented procedures for division of whole numbers. Errors also tended to be specific to the type of division problem…

This note discusses some set equations, using set matrices, i.e. matrices whose entries are sets.

This submission contains the Proceedings of the 2011 Annual Meeting of the Canadian Mathematics Education Study Group (CMESG), held at Memorial University of Newfoundland in St. John's, Newfoundland. The CMESG is a group of mathematicians and mathematics educators who meet annually to discuss mathematics education issues at all levels of learning.…

In this note, we demonstrate with illustrations two different ways that MS Excel can be used to solve Linear Systems of Equation, Linear Programming Problems, and Matrix Inversion Problems. The advantage of using MS Excel is its availability and transparency (the user is responsible for most of the details of how a problem is solved). Further, we…

Five different methods for determining the maximizing condition for x(a - x) are presented. Included is the ancient Greek version and a method attributed to Fermat. None of the proofs use calculus. (LS)

The connection between linear and 0-1 integer linear formulations has attracted the attention of many researchers. The main reason triggering this interest has been an availability of efficient computer programs for solving pure linear problems including the transportation problem. Also the optimality of linear problems is easily verifiable…

This article describes an alternate way to utilize a circular model to represent thirds by incorporating areas of circular segments, trigonometric functions, and geometric transformations. This method is appropriate for students studying geometry and trigonometry at the high shool level. This task provides valuable learning experiences that…

This study assessed the effects of small-group tutoring with and without validated classroom instruction on at-risk students' math problem solving. Stratifying within schools, 119 3rd-grade classes were randomly assigned to conventional or validated problem-solving instruction (Hot Math, schema-broadening instruction). Students identified as at…

This study examined how selected school mathematics textbooks in China, Singapore, and USA at the lower secondary grade level represent problem-solving procedures. The analysis of problem-solving procedures was carried out in two layers--general strategies, which adopted Polya's four-stage problem-solving model, and specific strategies, which…