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.

This guide encourages a learning environment that allows for creativity. Creative theory, assessment, and talent identification information is given. Student activities are presented to encourage creative problem solving, dispel myths and misunderstandings about creativity, provide exercises in brainstorming, creative thinking, and making cross…

This pre-school through grade 12 environmental education learning continuum was designed to help educators with a systematic method which develops an environmental ethic among students. It consists of: (1) preschool through third-grade activities (which stress environmental awareness and sensitivity); (2) intermediate level activities (which give…

Presents a lesson using chocolate chip cookies to involve children in scientific investigation and mathematical reasoning. (Author/MKR)

Presents activities that relate the Olympic Games to measurement. Includes descriptions of and worksheets for 5 activities involving estimation, nonstandard units of measure, linear measure, and time measurement for grade levels K-2, 2-4, and 5-8. (MDH)

Presents activities that integrate story telling, history, and problem solving as a stimulus for discussion and creativity in the elementary mathematics classroom, and a way to relieve children's anxiety in an escalating curriculum. (MDH)

Critical thinking is often a desired competency for graduates of a technology program. Organizational members have uttered concern about students' inability to think critically. Although traditional pedagogical techniques, such as lectures and examinations, center on knowledge acquisition, debates in the technology classroom can effectively…

One of the greatest needs of faculty in adult and higher education today is to understand how to design distance learning courses which address the needs of their current and prospective students while upholding academic excellence and remaining feasible to develop (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek, 2009; Palloff & Pratt, 2004). This…

Problem-based learning focuses on small groups using authentic problems as a means to help participants obtain knowledge and problem-solving skills. This approach makes problem-based learning ideal for teaching lean manufacturing, which is driven by a culture of problem solving that values learning as one key output of manufacturing production.…

Health professionals use critical thinking, a key problem solving skill, for clinical reasoning which is defined as the use of knowledge and reflective inquiry to diagnose a clinical problem. Teaching these skills in traditional settings with growing class sizes is challenging, and students increasingly expect learning that is flexible and…

This book provides activities for fourth, fifth, and sixth grade teachers and librarians to use in the spare moments that can be transformed into educational experiences. The activities range from individual paper-and-pencil games, to partner activities, to whole-class ideas, and combinations thereof. The activities are arranged by subject (i.e.,…

Noting that everyday creativity often requires imaginative insight, this book provides opportunities for children and adults to invent and problem solve by confronting puzzling scenarios that invite visual imagination. Each of the 71 activities in the book begins with a scenario that promotes speculative imagination. In the creative- and…

Connections between science and mathematics are emphasized in a series of activities related to the heart. Worksheets designed for multiple grade levels investigate (1) How Big Is Your Heart? (levels K-2); (2) Every Beat of Your Heart (levels 3-4); (3) What's the Beat? (level 5-6), and Heartifacts (level 7-8). Extensions of the activities are…

Presents a class activity in which students use trigonometry to calculate the height attained by a water rocket. Provides a lesson plan that includes a list of materials needed, procedures to carry out the experiment, suggestions to extend the activity, and a reproducible worksheet for the students to register their calculations. (MDH)

Describes a contest where sixth-grade students observe the results of a week of planning, folding, testing, and comparing their best paper frog designs and hopping techniques. This integrated unit helps children unleash their imaginations and develop problem-solving skills. (PR)